Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s pleased that his Town team have an opportunity to take on a Premier League side when they face Southampton at St Mary’s in Sunday afternoon's sell-out FA Cup third round tie. An away following of 5,500 will watch the Blues, who are second in the Championship, come up against the Premier League’s fourth-placed side.
"When the draw was made I thought at the time that it was great because we could go and compete against a Premier League team,” McCarthy said.
"If we lose the game, we’re playing against a Premier League side, it’s not like we’re playing a non-league outfit.
"If there’s any pressure, it’s on them to win their tie at home against a Championship side.
"But they’ll know, they’re not daft, we’re second in the league and we’ve been there for a while in the top six in the league. I think they’ll pay us a healthy amount of respect.”
He says doing well against a top flight team can provide a boost for a Championship side, although he’s looking for a victory rather than a glorious defeat: "We’ve been playing well enough, we’ve been getting good results and now we’ve got a test against a Premier League side, and that’s just what it is.
"I think whoever you play well against it helps. What we don’t want to do is turn up there and get slapped and then come away feeling the opposite.
"But I’m not into heroic failure or defeats; we go there and play really well but get beaten. I want to go there and try and win.
"I’ve been in games where you’ve been doing all right as a Championship side, you play against a better side, a Premier League team and you don’t get much of the ball, you don’t get many chances and you come away feeling a bit deflated. That’s what I don’t want to happen.”
He added: "I’d like to win it and see if we can get another tie. A cup run can enhance a promotion push.
"There’s that difficulty in that if you go out and play against a Premier League side and you never scratch the surface and don’t look like you can play against them.
"We want to win the game, first and foremost, but we want to perform well against them.”
He says he knows his Southampton opposite number from their playing days: "Ronald Koeman, I played against him, a wonderful player and he’s turned out to be a good manager in the Premier League.
"I was at their game against Arsenal on Thursday, they’ve got a really good bunch of players, they’ve got some really capable players.
"I have to say it didn’t make me feel any happier about playing them when I watched them beat Arsenal 2-0, I have to be honest. But it’s up to us to go and compete against them.”
The two bosses faced one another while playing for the Republic of Ireland and Holland respectively: "Happy memories, they were great games playing in the European Championships and the finals of the World Cup. We lost in 1988 and we drew in 1990 but they were great games, happy memories.
"He was a wonderful player, we’re both centre-halves, but vastly different. Would we have made a good pair? He would have let me go and head it and rough up a few while he swept up behind me.
"Whether he would have wanted to play with me, I’m not sure, but I would have been happy playing with him.”
McCarthy says he’s not sure how many changes Koeman will make to his regular XI: "I don’t know if they’re losing players to the African Nations Cup but I think they are, although Sadio Mané got injured anyway after he scored the goal against Arsenal.
"They’re fourth in the league, I think they’ll want to cement that a little bit with a cup run, he’ll not want to dilute his team, he’ll see it as a passage to the next round.
"There’ll be a big crowd, a full house. I don’t know how much he’ll change it or whether he’s got the wherewithal to change it with his squad. I don’t think he’s got the biggest squad in the world.”
The Blues boss was impressed with the Saints against the Gunners: "I have to say Fraser Forster made three unbelievable saves, three that I applauded when I was sat in the stand, certainly two terrific ones.
"They were just very, very competent. They didn’t give Arsenal too many chances. They could have won by more.
"Having said that, Arsenal made mistakes for the goals, but it was a really solid performance, they’re a good team.
"I didn’t think there were any outstanding individuals, I just thought they were a good team.”
He says Southampton’s success since their promotion from the Championship in 2012, to a great extent built on the success of their academy, shows what can be achieved by clubs comparable to Town.
"It would be a nice model to follow, whether it’s the appropriate one, I don’t know," McCarthy added. "It would be nice to achieve what they’ve done.
"We’ve got a very good academy, a thriving academy with some good young players in it. If I’m not mistaken, somebody there, whether it was Rupert Lowe or someone else, took a decision a long time ago to go out and buy a lot of promising young talent, Theo Walcott and even as far back as David McGoldrick, and that was a good decision.
"But those kinds of players cost a lot of money. We’re producing our own within Financial Fair Play, getting kids in and trying to get them through.
"We’ve got one in already, who is attracting almost as much interest as Tyrone Mings, actually, Teddy Bishop.”
Asked whether he feels his players will see the game as a chance to show that they are capable of playing in the top flight, he said: "As a player when I was in that position I didn’t go out to show the world that I could compete against them, I wanted to beat them, that’s all.
"I wasn’t showcasing myself as a footballer, it was wanting to beat them and have a feather in my cap and feel good about it and slapping somebody who was supposedly better than me.
"Is that the underdog mentality? I don’t know. If you go and win and you play well, it’s afterwards you get [thoughts of it being a] showcase.
"There’ll be games with a lot more interest than ours. Southampton-Ipswich is a good cup tie but there are some others that’ll get far more interest than ours.”
He says his best memory of the FA Cup came as a manager with Sunderland in 2004: "Reaching the semi-final with Sunderland, that’s mine. We were beaten by Millwall at Old Trafford but that was the best.
"As a player, I’d probably have to go as far back as Barnsley. I didn’t grace the FA Cup as a player, I have to be honest!”
With 5,500 fans making the trip to Hampshire - the largest ever away following at St Mary's - he hopes his team can give them something to shout about: "Let’s hope we play well and we give them something so it will have that nice carnival feel about it.
"It’s great when you get a lot of fans travelling but when you travel as a Championship side full of hope and expectation, second in the league, you want to compete against them and have a chance of winning.
"I’ve been there as a player and a manager and you turn up and they’re better than you and it ends up 1-0 and you’ve not had a shot at goal or anything. I want a proper FA Cup tie, whatever you think that might be.”
While not overly keen on a replay, he says it would have its upside: "I’d like to beat them first time!
"I wouldn’t [want a replay] but might be nice having a full house, that would be all right if we could manage that.”
While McCarthy has already confirmed that he will make a number of changes and that Dean Gerken will start in goal, the Blues boss wouldn’t be drawn on the rest of his XI. That being the case, second guessing the line-up is a difficult task.
McCarthy may well decide to stick with the backline he has fielded in the last three games, although could opt to recall Tyrone Mings at left-back for Jonny Parr. Another alternative might be to bring 18-year-old Matt Clarke into the side for his second senior appearance at either left-back or centre-half.
In midfield, the Town boss could choose to switch to his central three with Cole Skuse, Luke Hyam, Kevin Bru and Darren Ambrose amongst the options, along with Teddy Bishop, although McCarthy may well chose to rest the 18-year-old.
Up front, Conor Sammon and Stephen Hunt are options for the front three alongside either 17-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy and/or David McGoldrick.
Southampton boss Koeman told the Saints official site he’s expecting a difficult game: "Every opponent we take very seriously. I watched the last game of Ipswich against Charlton Athletic and I have to prepare for the players for this Sunday, there is no difference to this game than to Arsenal or Chelsea.
"It will be tough against Ipswich, they are a good team, a strong opponent and one of the leaders in the Championship. We have to prepare for that.
"I don’t change a lot but of course we have to look to the players and the freshness of the players. Maybe we will make one or two changes, but we are in a good way.
"We have confidence and that’s the best way to be successful. I don’t like to change too much.”
Striker Mané is considered a big doubt having picked up his knock against Arsenal, while defenders Nathaniel Clyne and Jack Cork are set to miss out with ankle injuries.
Midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin is back after a one-match ban but defender Maya Yoshida is unavailable as he is with the Japan squad ahead of the Asian Cup.
Historically, the Blues have the edge having won 25 games against Southampton, losing 22 and with 19 ending in draws. However, the Saints have won all four of the previous FA Cup ties between the clubs.
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. Prior to that, Town fell to a hefty 7-1 third round defeat in their 1960/61 promotion season.
The teams last faced one another in the league during Southampton’s 2011/12 Championship promotion season, in March 2012, at St Mary’s when Jason Scotland’s late deflected goal secured the Blues a deserved 1-1 draw.
The Saints went ahead in the 74th minute via Rickie Lambert but Scotland’s goal five minutes from the end claimed the point for Town.
Earlier that season at Portman Road, Town fell to their third home defeat in a week as Southampton won 5-2.
The Saints were 3-0 in front at the break through Lambert (2) and David Connolly, however, Town fought back to 3-2 via Keith Andrews and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, but Adam Lallana added two more late on to seal a deserved victory.
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.
The Saints squad includes former Town keepers Kelvin Davis and Cody Cropper but neither are likely to be involved on Sunday.
The referee is Premier League official Martin Atkinson from West Yorkshire, who has shown 83 yellow cards and three red in 21 games so far this season. Atkinson’s last Town match was the 2-1 defeat at home to Charlton in September 2012 when he booked Lee Martin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Mings, Parr, Smith, Berra, Clarke, Skuse, Bishop, Hyam, Bru, Ambrose, Tabb, Anderson, S Hunt, Stewart, Henshall, Murphy, McGoldrick, Sammon, Bajner.