FA Cup Preview: Southampton v Man United

Tomorrow evening Manchester United take on Southampton in the fourth round of the FA Cup at St Mary's

Man United went through to the third round after beating Liverpool 1-0 at Old Trafford after a 2nd minute penalty from Ryan Giggs. League One side Southampton beat Premier League side Blackpool 2-0 at St Mary's in the previous round.

The last time the two sides met was in the third round of the FA Cup back 2009, which United won 3-0 with goals from Danny Welbeck, Luis Nani (penalty) and Darron Gibson. Before that United and Southampton faced each other three times in the 2004/05 season, twice in the league and once in the FA Cup. United won all three games.

Head-to-head the two clubs have played each other a total of 109 times in all competitions. Man United have won 56 times, Southampton 25 times and there have been 28 draws. 14 of the 109 games have been played in the FA Cup, United have won eight times, lost only once and there have been five draws.

Manchester United will be without Patrice Evra who is missing after a family bereavement. Edwin Van Der Sar will be rested, which means that Anders Lindegaard could make his debut. Rafael Da Silva suffered concussion during the 3-2 win over Blackpool so he won't play but Michael Carrick trained has trained so he could play.

Man United squad: Kuszczak, Lindegaard, O’Shea, Brown, Neville, Vidic, Smalling, Evans, Fabio, Nani, Obertan, Carrick, Fletcher, Scholes, Gibson, Anderson, Giggs, Bebe, Rooney, Berbatov, Hernandez and Owen.

Ahead of the game, Southampton will check the fitness of both Dean Hammond and Adam Lallana, who have both been struggling with injuries.

Referee tomorrow is Martin Atkinson. So far this season Atkinson has refereed 24 games in all competitions, showing 85 yellow cards and eight reds. Atkinson has officiated two games involving Man United; the 3-3 draw against Everton in the league and 2-0 win over Wigan in the league. Atkinson refereed Southampton's FA Cup game against Blackpool last month.

Leave a Reply