FORMER Saints striker and Bristol City boss Joe Jordan is backing ex-Scottish international colleague Gordon Strachan to avoid a cup upset tonight.

Bristol-based Jordan, who played at The Dell in the mid-1980s, feels Saints' extra quality will take them through to the fourth round at the expense of a club he managed to the semi-finals of the League Cup in 1989.

He bristled with annoyance when some City fans told him Saints were one of the more unfashioanable sides in the Premiership.

"I don't know how you can say that," he said. "Maybe that was the case once when they were new to the top division, in the great days under Lawrie McMenemy.

"But they got an incredible consistency going after winning the FA Cup (1976) and were always striving for Europe.

"I remember coming back from Italy, having already been fortunate to have played for Manchester United and Leeds, and been absolutely thrilled at the age of 32 to be approached by Southampton.

"They might not have been the biggest of clubs at the time but the philosophy and manner they went about their business was spot-on. That remains the case today.

"They have always had a great fan base and that was once limited on matchday because of the size of their old ground at The Dell.

"But it was of great advantage to the players because there was invariably a full house of 15,000 every week, the crowd were right on top of you and it made for a very tough place to go for opponents."

Jordan added: "It was a real plus for me to go there and although I got injured in my second season, I scored a lot of goals and in my first year back we qualified for Europe, only to not be able to compete because of the ban on English clubs after Heysel."

These days Saints play in front of 30,000-plus crowds at St Mary's and Jordan stressed: "The ground can only be of benefit to them as they continue to compete at the top level.

"They'll generate additional revenue from that and one thing they are clearly not doing is standing still and just trying to survive in the Premier League.

"St Mary's opens up new doors for them to go forward and good luck to them.

"Obviously they don't have the same spending power in the market as Chelsea, for example, but they are a Premier League team, have been there a very long time (since 1978) and they deserve an awful lot of respect.

"It will not be an easy fixture for Bristol City but you cannot ask for any more than to get a home tie, irrespective of the opposition, and the City crowd should give them an extra lift."

Jordan continued: "I remember Stockport beating Southampton 2-1 at The Dell when Dave Jones was manager there a few seasons back in the same competition, so upsets do happen.

"City should certainly be up for it and they'll have to be. For their players it will be a learning curve, a chance to pit their skills against quality.

"I saw a lot of Southampton last season and they played very well. Gordon Strachan has engendered a very good team spirit and, although it's a bonus to City that Kevin Phillips is suspended, Saints still have lots of quality.

"James Beattie was always terrific when I saw him, someone who works for the team and can score goals inside and outside the box."

Asked for his prediction tonight, Jordan replied: "It won't be an easy match for either team and it should be an exciting game. But I feel that if Southampton play to their capabilities, they will just come through."