Town's third round FA Cup tie at Southampton has been set for Sunday 4th January with a 3pm kick-off.

As reported last night, the Saints are in action at home to Arsenal on the Thursday so won't have been keen to play the match on the Saturday. The tie may still move if it is chosen for live TV coverage.

Manager Mick McCarthy said at last night's AGM that he is pleased to be facing Premier League opposition.

“I think it’s a great draw for us, but I would have loved it to have been at home.

"Believe me, I didn’t want Accrington Stanley. Who? Exactly!" he joked. "I didn’t want one of those teams, I’d prefer to test ourselves [against a Premier League side like Southampton].”

Asked whether he would field his strongest team, he added: “We haven’t got a game in the following week and I would have thought that the lads would want to play.

“I’ll see what we’ve got. We’ve got a squad of 21 operating at the minute and we’ll see who’s fit, who’s ready and we’ll go and take them on.”

The teams last met at the same stage of the competition back in Town's 1999/00 promotion season when the Saints won 1-0 at Portman Road with Dean Richards netting the goal.

More recently, they faced one another in the fourth round in 2009/10 when Wayne Thomas and Michail Antonio netted for the Saints and Pablo Couñago scored in the final minute for the Blues.

Previously, the Blues were at the Dell for a third round tie in 1990/91 when the home side ran out 3-2 victors.

Blues striker David McGoldrick and keeper Bartosz Bialkowski will be facing their old club, while Tyrone Mings was with their academy as a schoolboy and keeper-coach Malcolm Webster is another former St Mary's employee.

Photo: Action Images

Paulblue62 added 12:16 - Dec 9 A Sunday afternoon on the South coast in January, doesn't get much better than that.
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ipswich_Jordy added 12:40 - Dec 9 Hopefully the blue army will still be in full force as usual #COYB
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Carrotblue added 12:43 - Dec 9 Saturday night out in Southampton Excellent pubs and resturants to go to
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scooby added 12:59 - Dec 9 Ahh bless em can't they manage 2 games in 3 days.180 mins.however will l manage my shift tomorrow iv done 16 hrs already this week.il never cope
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rinkydinkpanther added 13:19 - Dec 9 @scooby Yes, that's a very amusing observation. But I think you'll find 180 minutes of professional athletic exertion in three days (not to mention what's at stake) is a little bit different to mind-numbingly holding a price clicker in your hand for eight hours on end whilst studiously avoiding to learn any kind of grammar. *smugly gets coat, top hat and cane and hails a horse-drawn carriage over to the Reform Club*

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statto72 added 13:40 - Dec 9 I will point out however that non-league clubs are playing New Years Day AND Saturday 3rd. I don't hear them complaining. And these semi-pros also hold price clickers for a living. Well, some of them, maybe....
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scooby added 13:49 - Dec 9 Never underestimate the energy required to use a use a price clicker.Its an emotional journey that can totally drain you
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dalinghooblue added 13:50 - Dec 9 Travel by Rail Dep Ipswich 0911 to Stratford, u/ground to Waterloo, arrive Southampton Central at 1334. Approx 1 mile walk to the stadium. Dep S'ton Cent 1825, via Waterloo and Stratford, arrives Ipswich 2257. Return Fare without travel cards, £40.40
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tractorboybig added 14:02 - Dec 9 I say chaps, Whats a price clicker?
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1RWR added 15:53 - Dec 9 tractorboybig I think a 'price clicker' is a manual workers work tool or something similar, like you, I'm not quite sure..............a sherry before dinner dear boy?
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BlueInBerks added 16:22 - Dec 9 See you in the west wing library... dressing for dinner?
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IP3 added 17:27 - Dec 9 @rinkydinkpanther hahahaha, you are joking right? 180 minutes out of a possible 4320 is absolutely nothing. in comparison, cyclists in the tour de france manage roughly 1000 minutes of " professional athletic exertion" in the same time frame. your point in protecting grossly over paid and pampered "athletes" is simply invalid. i think we will beat them .COYB
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MattinLondon added 18:45 - Dec 9 Different sports require different physical demands. A Tour De France cyclist would struggle to last 90 minutes of almost top level football. Teams like Chelsea or Man City could put out a top class reserve team. Southampton couldn't. If they rest their best players then their team will be a good Championship side. If we play our best then we can easily take them.
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thebeat added 18:53 - Dec 9 So basically all the premier league sides will be playing on Sunday totally devalueing the 3rd round of the F.A. Cup? The F.A. knew exactly what day their own cup was being played so why have a league game on New Years day? The football league used their brains and dont have a new years day fixture for exactly that reason. Or is it pure greed again cus of Sky? And we wonder why the F.A. Cup is losing popularity with fans......

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GeoffSentence added 19:40 - Dec 9 Sunday game. Hoorah! I just love rail replacement buses.
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Samassi100Abou added 21:51 - Dec 9 Should be a good game ! Nothing to lose think we may surprise them and be very hard to break down, if we get knocked out who cares we will have another go at them in the league next season ;-) ..... (Note to self there is a very long way to go :-/ ) Derby playing Middlesbrough this weekend possiblity to go top ?
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Ely_Blue added 22:04 - Dec 9 One wonders if we had been drawn at home whether we would have been able to have insisted the game was played on the Saturday?
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