Saints being drawn away at Manchester City in the next round of the Carabao Cup was a disappointment to some but seen as an opportunity by others.

On paper just about the worst draw we could have hoped for was Manchester City away and some would have said that we have departed the competition a mere 24 hours after the team we beat in this round Portsmouth.

But I would say that the Death Knell for Saints cup hopes may already be stating to toll, but their is still life for Saints in the competition yet.

Yes it will be tough, but if you are to win a cup then for a team like Saints someone has to beat the likes of City and Liverpool.

From this point of view the best time to play Manchester City is possibly going to be now at a time when they are fighting on three fronts, their first priority is to make sure that they don't make any more slip ups in the League and let Liverpool pull away further.

Their second priority is going to be the Champions League and making sure they win their group in that competition, so the Carabao Cup is not a priority.

Our game up at the Etihad comes smack bang in the middle of a busy time for City and is sandwiched between two Champions League weeks, meaning that in the three weeks between Saturday 19th October and Sunday 10th November when they travel to Liverpool they will play 7 games.

They have the squad to do this of course, but it means that they will have to use it and that could mean an opportunity for Saints to catch City off their guard and with their thoughts elsewhere.

There is certainly scope for Saints to do well in this competition and whilst I would rather it has been someone like Arsenal facing them and not us, we have to beat the big boys at some stage so better to face them now rather than in a later round when they may have a lighter schedule and be concentrating more on the Caraboa Cup then their priorities allow now.

This could of course be wishful thinking, but in football you have to have optimism and hope otherwise there is not much point following a football team, Rochdale fans lived in the hope that one day they might go to Old Trafford and get a result, they did that last night but sadly lost on penalties, the gap between Rochdale and Manchester City is far far wider than us and Manchester City, so we need to dare to dream.

So this draw is an opportunity, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain, because with some big Premier Clubs being drawn together if we can despatch City then we have a great chance opened up in this tournament.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 16:11 - Sep 26 OK -it's Man City. we'd either end playing them now ..or in the Final. Ralph will have to put out his best/strongest side, but you can be sure Pep, won't be playing ALL of his top names. If we can play the best possible then we have an equal chance -and hope it doesn't go to penalties.
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wibbersda added 16:49 - Sep 26 We played Prem teams all the way to the final last time, so it's achievable. Although, and this won't be popular to say, it would need Puel to do it.
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1970 added 19:29 - Sep 26 We have a great chance of beating Citeh as long as the players believe, but on the other hand Citehs youth team would beat us if we're not up for it and probably there women coyr.
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SanMarco added 19:57 - Sep 26 I go for death knell from those two options. We will always have the 0-4 though...
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