Saints make Turf Moor return

We visited St Mary's for the first time at the beginning of December, at a time when fun on the south coast had just started between them and Portsmouth. Just hours before the game, news broke that manager Harry Redknapp wouldn't be there, and he subsequently left the club.

Dave Bassett was in charge that day with Dennis Wise but they didn't get the job, bringing about a somewhat childish tantrum from Wise, and it went to George Burley who had just escaped the Romanov trap at Hearts.

Changing manager is something that they have got used to dealing with, and after long spells from Ted Bates, McMenemy and Chris Nicholl followed by almost three years of Ian Branfoot it has become one of the less secure jobs in football.

Alan Ball, McMenemy again, Dave Merrington, Graeme Souness, Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle, Stuart Gray, Gordon Strachan, Steve Wigley, Paul Sturrock, Wigley again, Redknapp, Bassett and now Burley have all had a go at the job since 1994, and many of those have been in and out since the duck shooting, somewhat eccentric Rupert Lowe took over as chairman.

Burley got the job just two days before Christmas and I think it is fair to say that he's made a considerable number of changes to the squad, taking advantage of the transfer window in January and the emergency loan system since.

No fewer than fourteen players have left the club since the start of 2006, eleven of them permanently and three more on loan. Some of them are notable departures too, such as the much publicised move to Arsenal for Theo Walcott.

But Walcott was not the only high profile sale, goalkeeper Antti Niemi, midfielder Nigel Quashie and such as Rory Delap and Brett Ormerod were also amongst those leaving the club.

That means new players have come in, eight of them in all, with all but three of them on loan deals. The permanent signings are goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski from Gornik Zabrze, Norwich defender Jim Brennan and Swede Alexander Ostlund, another defender, from Dutch club Feyenoord.

All but one of the five loan signings are known to us, the exception being Peter Madsen, a Danish forward from FC Cologne, who scored his first goals for the Saints last week. He was joined in January by Liverpool defender Darren Potter, who played in the FA Cup tie at Burnley last year.

Into February and Burley brought in three more players, all on the same day. Jermaine Wright is well known to us having scored those first minute goals for Leeds (last season) and Millwall (this season) before we went on to win both games 2-1. Thankfully it is not the first week in November.

Grzegorz Rasiak was a Burley signing for Derby County, and the player whose dreadful over reaction earned Wayne Thomas a red card earlier in the season is back with Burley on loan from Spurs.

The last of the loan players needs no introduction at all, it's Richard Chaplow. Chappy has struggled to establish himself at West Brom since his move from Burnley and made the move to the south coast. He's played at the Turf this season, for the England Under-20 side, but this will be the first time he will have played against the team he supports.

All those changes at once have led to an unsettled run of results and although they were never likely to be amongst the front runners this season it is something of a shock to see them hovering just above the bottom four, although they do have a game in hand and are six points clear of the relegation places and aren't likely to get dragged into it.

Hopefully they will lose that game in hand tonight and the Clarets can pull themselves further up the league with another home win.

Click HERE to see all Southampton's results this season.

George Burley was without Rasiak last Saturday at Sheffield United after the striker pulled a buttock muscle in training on the Friday. Whether this is what getting your arse in gear is all about I don't know but he's still touch and go for tonight's game.

There is some good news for the Saints' boss though with Wright available again after missing out on Saturday with a bruised foot and he is expected to return to the starting line up.

If Rasiak makes it, expect Southampton to line up: Paul Smith, Alexander Ostlund, Darren Kenton, Danny Higginbotham, Jim Brennan, Chris Baird, Richard Chaplow, Jermaine Wright, Andrew Surman, Grzegorz Rasiak, Peter Madsen. Subs from: Kevin Miller, Claus Lundekvam, Dexter Blackstock, Kenwyne Jones, Martin Cranie, Kamil Kosowski, Darren Potter, Nathan Dyer.

Click HERE to see the full Southampton squad.

Burnley have no new injury worries and Steve Cotterill could have a bigger squad to select from than he did on Saturday with both Micah Hyde and John McGreal getting closer to fitness.

They have both missed the last two games against Stoke and Norwich and although it has been said they will be given as long as possible for tonight, it is likely they will both sit this one out.

Steve Cotterill said before Friday's win against Norwich that latest signing Alan Mahon was close to a start, and he certainly impressed when he did get on as a substitute. But the performance and result might just mean Steve sticking with the same eleven that gave us our first points in seven games.

That would see us lining up: Brian Jensen, Phil Bardsley, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Graham Branch, Michael Ricketts, Andy Gray. Subs from: Alan Mahon, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Danny Karbassiyoon, Kyle Lafferty, John McGreal, Micah Hyde.

There's a short reminder of our last home game against Southampton a 3-3 draw in 1978, as well as more of their visits to Burnley and they can be found in It's in the distant past in our look back section.

The Southampton team for that last game between the two clubs at Turf Moor included former Claret Chris Nicholl and Malcolm Waldron who was to sign for Burnley over five years later. It proved to be Keith Newton's last game at Turf Moor. The teams were,

Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Derek Scott, Ian Brennan, Peter Noble, Jim Thomson, Keith Newton, Terry Cochrane, Billy Ingham, Paul Fletcher, Steve Kindon, Tony Morley.

Southampton: Ian Turner, Malcolm Waldron, David Peach, Steve Williams, Chris Nicholl, Mike Pickering, Alan Ball, Phil Boyer, Ted MacDougall, Nick Holmes (Trevor Hebberd), Manny Andruszewski.