Our opening Championship match this Saturday sees Southampton at Ninian Park (3.00pm) in front of what is expected to be a capacity crowd as we begin our final season at the ground that has been our home since 1910.

The Saints nearly went down at the end of last season and were in the relegation-three at the start of their final game against Sheffield United at St.Mary's. They won it 3-2 in front of a full house of nearly 32,000 and avoided the drop by two points.

At the end of May, Manager Nigel Pearson was replaced by former Dutch International Jan Poortvliet who released a number of players and has brought in goalkeeper Tommy Forecast (Tottenham), defender ChrisPerry (Luton) after his loan spell at the end of last season, full-back Andrew Davies from Middlesbrough following last season's loan, defender or midfield player Paul Wotton from Plymouth Argyle, midfield players Lee Holmes (Derby) and Morgan Schneiderlin (RC Strasbourg) for whom an eventual fee of £1.6 million was paid.

Saturday is likely to see a remarkable come-back by defender Michael Svensson - the former Swedish International originally joined Southampton in 2002, but in the last few years injury kept him out of action, and his contract was not renewed when it expired in June 2007. But after an extensive rehabilitation he played in several pre-season friendlies and is now ready to resume his career.

The Saints did not win any of their pre-season first-team games, the most recent one being last Tuesday when they 3-2 at St. Mary's to Premiership Stoke City. They used two different line-ups in each half, and the eleven that started the first half is likely to be the one that is in action at Ninian Park on Saturday, with Svensson coming on for Wayne Thomas. The first-half line-up against Stoke was:-

Kelvin Davis; Lloyd James, Wayne Thomas, Chris Perry, Andy Surman; Morgan Schneiderlin, Simon Gillett, Jake Thomson, Adrian Lallana, Lee Holmes; David McGoldrick.