There is something in the air around St Mary's these days and its called expectation as Saints await the Capital One Cup draw later today.

Last season some Saints fans thought they were watching the best football they had ever seen Saints play, personally I though that was slightly over the top, but with the arrival of Sadio Mane I think that soon Saints supporters might be making that claim again and this time they will have a case.

But there is a little more in the air now and unlike last season when we knew that Mauriccio Pochettino was going to throw our cup chances out of the window with barely a whimper, this season it is clear that Ronald Koeman wants to deliver trophy's.

In all good cup runs there is a sense of expectation, the supporters can feel it, in 1976 it was there, it was there in 1984, but Saints would fall just short of the final, in 1992 and the Zenith Data Cup final it was clear from the early rounds that Ian Branfoot was taking it seriously and again in 2003 with the run to Cardiff for the FA Cup, even back in 2009/10 the JPT cup run was focused.

Now we seem to be prioritising cups again and that has to be good, the reality is that the top of the Premier league is for a privileged few, those clubs that can truly afford to throw big big money to buy their way to the top four season after season and the rest of the Premier League are slowly starting to realise that the only chance of real glory is in one of the cups.

The past decade has seen their popularity wane, mainly due to the focus on the Premier league,but now for club's like Saints it is a chance to actually win something and get into Europe and if football is to prosper then the supporters of clubs outside the big 5 have to have something to look forward too other than just making up the numbers.

So after the great win at Arsenal last night there is a feeling around Saints that this could be the year we will have a decent crack at reaching a Wembley Cup Final again and first up is the Capital One Cup and a good draw tonight for us along with a few Premier Clubs meeting each other could just open out the competition for us.

We go forward with confidence that we can beat anybody, but personally I would prefer we do it the easy way rather than the hard and if that means a few beneficial draws in our favour then so be it.

The whiff of glory is in the air, we have a team that can play football lets enjoy the ride.

Photo: Action Images

BoondockSaint added 15:10 - Sep 24 I know it's important to continue our winning ways and go out to win every game. It's important for team spirit and identity. But you can't call this a run for "glory". The only titles that count are League, Champions League and FA Cup (although I admit teams have allowed it to be devalued by concentrating on the League title and "playing in Europe") To make them worth something, the League Cup and Europa League should be only for under 21s, or maybe under 18s and teams that can't make it in Champions League should not be allowed to "drop down" into Europa to beat up on smaller budget teams. Yes, winning the Paint Pot was important to fan morale after nearly going out of business, but do you really brag about it? If we were to win the League Cup, or Europa League, what would we do, have a parade while playing Queen only with the lyrics changed to "We Are The Champions, Of The Second Class Teams That Can't Beat The Quality Sides!" ? OK, rant over, all in all great result, beating Arsenal is still beating Arsenal! And another quality signing by Koeman and the board makes his debut! Onward and Upward!

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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 15:48 - Sep 24 Boondock I disagree. The League Cup is definitely worth winning if you're not one of the 'big six'. It gives you a route into Europe which is very difficult to achieve in the league with the big clubs getting bigger. And who can turn their nose up at a cup final at Wembley. The JPT Final at Wembley was amazing. What a great day for Saints fans. I'd love to be there again for the League Cup Final. Would be another marquee day in our progression. Also, the Europa League is an incredibly hard competition to win. Massively difficult. To win it would be a big achievement for any team.

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BoondockSaint added 16:19 - Sep 24 I understand your point of view Reedy very valid points, but if you're in a pub with a bunch of ManU and/or Chelsea fans and they're talking about how great it was when they won the League this year or the Champions League that year, imagine if you chime in and say "Yeah, I know what you mean, like the year we won the Paint Pot!" imagine the deafening silence.........

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winchesterbob added 18:30 - Sep 24 From little acorns Boondock, from little acorns......
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SaintNick added 19:09 - Sep 24 The league cup has always been behind the other trophies but teams always wanted to win it even Liverpool didn't sneer at Kr in the old days
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Consigliere added 19:32 - Sep 24 If you look on the comments section in the national press (Guardian, Telegraph etc) its full of Arsenal supporters saying that the league cup is meaningless and they don't care if they are out of it (some of them even claim to be pleased they are). What a terrible attitude. I think I would want to stop watching Saints if I thought the majority of the other supporters felt this way. Sure, some competitions are more important than others but most of us would love to see our team win this competition - a group of lads near me were actually singing "We're going to win the cup" yesterday with 20 minutes to go! That's the spirit!

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bstokesaint added 23:22 - Sep 24 I'd be happy to win any silverware as a Saints' fan. I couldn't give a monkey's what Man U or Chelsea fans say. We can't compete with them financially, so ,for the meantime at least, I'd take any cup or European entry. Like Bob says "little acorns.." I think the long term solution for European competition is to award a CL spot to the winners of the League Cup. This would ramp up the competition with a £20m min prize, or whatever the value is these days of entry into the CL. If this means getting rid of the UEFA Cup then so be it.

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Zambucco added 08:14 - Sep 25 Sadly no! Glory only comes to Saints when we least expect it! But what ever they achieve this season will be remarkable. My prediction, good cup runs but no silverware, an improvement on last season's 8th, we'll finish 6th for me!
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