Match Pack: Saints vs Wrexham
The countdown is nearly complete, as Southampton prepare to embark on the 2025/26 Sky Bet Championship season under new management. Get set for the opening day with our Match Pack…
THE MATCH
Saints vs Wrexham
Sky Bet Championship
St Mary’s Stadium
Saturday 9th August, 12.30pm BST
THE OFFICIALS
Referee: James Bell
Assistants: Matthew Smith, Alex James
Fourth official: Tom Nield
THE KITS
Saints will wear our new red and white home strip for the first time at St Mary’s, inspired by the 1976/77 kit worn by Lawrie McMenemy’s FA Cup holders, paired with black shorts and white socks. Visitors Wrexham will be in yellow shirts, green shorts and yellow socks.
TICKETS
The match is sold out, with a capacity crowd set to welcome in the new campaign. Tickets are still available to buy or list on the Ticket Exchange.
For those without a ticket, the game will be screened live on Sky Sports Football with coverage getting under way from 11am BST, while Saints Play match passes are available for overseas supporters.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
As recently as 2023 this would have been a Premier League vs National League fixture, but Wrexham’s unprecedented rise through the divisions made this one an obvious choice for live TV coverage.
The two clubs have experienced contrasting transfer windows, with Saints keeping most of their existing squad intact following relegation, adding two new faces in the form of Joshua Quarshie and Damion Downs.
For Wrexham, becoming the first team in history to climb from non-league to the Championship with three successive promotions, there has been a necessity to add higher-level experience.
The Red Dragons have made eight signings to date. Kieffer Moore, Conor Coady, Lewis O’Brien, Josh Windass, Danny Ward and Ryan Hardie all bring Championship experience, whilst Liberato Cacace arrived from Empoli and George Thomason from Bolton, suggesting Wrexham have designs on more than just survival this season.
TEAM NEWS
Manager Will Still confirmed there will be several absentees from his squad for the season opener, with Will Smallbone, James Bree and Charlie Taylor all sidelined.
Mateus Fernandes and Flynn Downes are both available and Taylor Harwood-Bellis is nearing match fitness, but Tyler Dibling, Joe Aribo and Samuel Edozie won’t be involved.
Wrexham have a number of fitness concerns ahead of their first second-tier fixture in more than 40 years.
Summer signing Thomason will miss out with a thigh problem, while Player of the Season Ollie Rathbone and former Saint Jay Rodriguez are also expected to miss the game. Andy Cannon and Sam Smith are back in training but lacking match sharpness.
THE MANAGERS
Will Still: “They (Wrexham) are a really efficient team. They’ve got quite a clear identity in what they do and how they go about things, and they’ve obviously been incredibly successful, so fair play to them and congratulations to them.
“We’re expecting a lot of intensity, a lot of 50-50s, challenges and quite a high-intensity game, because that’s the way they play and that’s the way we want to play. They’ve obviously got this momentum going through the team and through the club, so we expect the very best version of Wrexham. We will have to be at our very best as well.”
Phil Parkinson: "It's amazing that we'll be running out at Southampton in front of a packed house, against a team that has spent a lot of time in the Premier League over the last few years. When I look at my first game here, Solihull away in front of a couple of thousand people, and four years later we're running out at Southampton.
“Sometimes you do have to step back and appreciate what we've done. I don't want us to fear it. I want us to go into every game ready to be positive. We've always been at our best when we've played in a positive way. We're going to go into each game with that mindset and see where that takes us."
ONES TO WATCH
Adam Armstrong: Saints’ Player of the Season in 2023/24, Armstrong’s goals were crucial in helping the club bounce back at the first attempt in our last Championship campaign.
Scoring 24 goals in all competitions that season, Armstrong is a proven goalscorer at Championship level. The striker previously hit 46 goals in his last two years at Blackburn prior to joining Saints in 2021.
James McClean: Veteran Irishman McClean has been with Wrexham for the last two seasons, helping them win promotion from League Two and League One in that time.
Now 36, he’s still one of the fittest players in the squad and possesses a ferocious will to win, as well as a dangerous left foot with his crossing ability from the flank, racking up 19 assists in two years at the Racecourse Ground.
HEAD TO HEAD
Played: 7
Saints wins: 4
Draws: 0
Wrexham wins: 3
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
Sep 1979: Wrexham 0-3 Saints League Cup second round second leg (Holmes, Hayes, Hebberd)
Aug 1979: Saints 5-0 Wrexham League Cup second round first leg (George, Boyer 2, Baker 2,)
Feb 1974: Saints 0-1 Wrexham FA Cup fifth round
Apr 1960: Wrexham 2-1 Saints Third Division (O’Brien)
Nov 1959: Saints 3-0 Wrexham Third Division (Reeves, O’Brien 2)
THE PROGRAMME
The matchday programme is available to order online, as well as from the various sellers around St Mary’s on matchday.
Will Still is the subject of our latest feature interview, as the manager speaks in-depth about his football upbringing, the players he idolised, how he progressed from university student to the youngest manager in the EFL, and the challenges of “wiping away the trauma” of relegation as Saints’ new boss.
This season we’re handing over cover design duties to local artists and Saints fans in collaboration with TURF, our creative studio. Shout out to James Quartly for this amazing illustration to kick things off!
KEEP UP TO DATE
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