Southampton host Rotherham at St Mary’s this Saturday in an important weekend in the Championship. Both sides have had a rocky start to the season and desperately need the three points to steer them back to promotion and safety respectively.
Southampton currently find themselves in tenth in the Championship after ten games. With five wins, one draw and four losses, The Saints have just 16 points on the board, leaving them on equal points with the final Play-off spot and nine points from automatic promotion.
In their last five games in all competitions, Southampton have two wins and three losses. Jamie Vardy opened the scoring for Leicester in the first minute and Kasey McAteer doubled their lead before Samuel Edozie put Southampton on the board. Wilfred Ndidi and Stephy Mavididi added even more goals for Leicester as they beat Southampton 4 - 1, with Kamaldeen Sulemana sent off in added time for The Saints. It was another loss for Southampton against Ipswich as Omari Hutchinson scored the only goal in the 1 - 0 win for Ipswich.
Adam Armstrong opened the scoring for Southampton against Middlesbrough but a goal from Riley McGree and a penalty from Jonny Howson gave Middlesbrough the 2 - 1 win over The Saints. However, Southampton were back to winning ways against Leeds. Armstrong scored twice in the first half along with Will Smallbone to give The Saints the 3 - 0 lead going into halftime. Pascal Struijk did score for Leeds but it wasn’t enough as Southampton won 3 - 1.
Last time out for Southampton was against Stoke on Tuesday. Stuart Armstrong scored the only goal of the game as The Saints won 1 - 0.
Rotherham, on the other hand, sit 23rd in the Championship and in the relegation zone. The Millers have one win, two draws and seven losses, leaving them with just five points and four points away from safety.
In their last five games in all competitions Rotherham have one draw and four losses. Josh Koroma and Sorba Thomas both scored for Huddersfield as The Terriers won 2 - 0, despite Rotherham having more of the possession. The next game against Millwall also piled on the misery for The Millers. Ryan Longman, Zian Flemming and Tom Bradshaw all scored as Millwall beat Rotherham 3 - 0.
The only point in this five game run was won against Preston. Jordan Hugill opened the scoring for Rotherham but Liam Lindsay equalised within the first half. Neither team could score in the second half as the game finished 1 - 1. But it was back to being on the short end as Kion Etete and Perry Ng both scored in the second half to give Cardiff the 2 - 0 win over The Millers.
The most recent outing for Rotherham was against Bristol City. Tommy Conway drew first blood in the 81st minute and Tyler Blackett thought he’d bagged a point with his equaliser in the 86th minute. However, Conway scored again in the 95th minute to give City the 2 - 1 win.
Southampton and Rotherham have met just 19 times in their histories, with the first meeting coming in 1951 and most recently in 2008. Rotherham have a marginally better record in the fixture with nine wins in comparison to Southampton’s eight wins, with the other two games ending in a draw.