Saints intend to go marching on

ATHLETIC have their work cut out trying to stop the Southampton juggernaut at the St Mary’s Stadium tonight (7.45pm kick-off).

Former Southend striker Lee Barnard emerged from the substitutes’ bench at the start of the second half to net a dramatic late winner with a close-range header at Yeovil on Saturday.

It arrived despite the dismissal of Saints midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, who saw red at Huish Park with 20 minutes to go and the game delicately poised at 0-0.

And the goal kept alive the hopes of boss Alan Pardew’s men, who are aiming to overcome a slow start to the season and a 10-point penalty for entering administration by clambering into the play-off places.

Should they manage to get there — Southampton are currently eight points behind Huddersfield, who occupy the last spot, with a game in hand on the West Yorkshire side — few will fancy coming up against them.

The recent record has been superb. Pardew’s side have won seven out of their last eight games in all competitions, including a 4-1 thrashing of Carlisle United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Wembley last month and a 5-1 demolition of Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Ground a week ago.

Chief among the Southampton threats is striker Rickie Lambert.

The Liverpool-born 28-year-old, formerly with Rochdale and Stockport County, has racked up a stunning 34 goals this season after his £1million capture at the start of the campaign.

If that fee doesn’t do enough to illustrate the huge gulf in resources between Southampton and clubs like Athletic, consider that at Yeovil, Pardew had internationals on the bench in Senegal forward Papa Waigo — on loan from Fiorentina, no less — experienced Tunisian centre-back Radhi Jaidi and ex-Ireland striker David Connolly, as well as Barnard, who has hit 26 goals this season including 17 for Southend.

Southampton ran out 3-1 winners when the teams met at Boundary Park in October of last year.

Dean Hammond and Lambert — who also hit the bar with a terrific effort from the halfway line — put the visitors two-up in the second half and though Pawel Abbott responded after Alex Marrow’s effort had hit a post, Connolly made sure of the points eight minutes from full-time with a neat finish.

In tonight’s other League One game, Tranmere need to win at Brentford in order to climb out of the last relegation place at the expense of Exeter City.