GORDON STRACHAN believes Saints have yet to scale the heights of last season - despite their record-breaking start to the new campaign.

The Southampton manager has overseen a six-game unbeaten start and leads his team into their first European tie for 19 years when they take on Steaua Bucharest at a sell-out St Mary's tonight in the first round of the UEFA Cup.

But Strachan, who lifted the European Cup Winners' Cup as a player with Aberdeen in 1983, refused to get carried away on the eve of his first European challenge as a manger.

Following consecutive wins against Manchester United, Wolves and Tottenham, he said: "The form we have at the moment is alright, it's not stunning. The form last year on occasions was far better than this year.

"After the first couple of games we got back to the level of last year - the work-rate - and our ability will get better as we get on with it."

Saints have to go back to the days of Lawrie McMenemy for their last European adventure in 1984-5 and Strachan admits he is particularly pleased for the club's long-serving players.

"It's good for the city, it's something new for players - people like Marsden, Oakley and Dodd," he said.

"It's good for them because they have had to work hard for it. Maybe one or two of them had thought it might have passed them by.

"As a player you are more excited, I'm more apprehensive, because it's my first shot at Europe as a manager."

The Saints boss was in Bucharest last Sunday to watch tonight's Romanian opponents and is not expecting a vastly different style of football to the English Premiership.

He said: "Maybe you need a wee bit more patience and you have to find out quickly how good the team is that you are playing against, because the reputation shouldn't scare you.

"They have a great history, but there is a high tempo to most games now.

I don't have a plan to go far in Europe, we will just play the games and see how we get on.

"Right now it's priority number one, but we've not had too much time to think about it to be honest.

"We've done our homework, I went to Bucharest to see them play and we've got three or four videos to watch so the players will be getting specifics on formation, but not too much."

He added: "There's not a great deal of difference on a football pitch. We are not going to change our style too much, because we like our style, it suits us and to change it wouldn't be right.

"I don't expect it being a European game will affect our players too much. A stage is a stage. They play 4-4-2, it's a wee bit different from our 4-4-2, but the only real difference is that they might have strange names!

"It will be a good game and I would rather have been playing other teams than Steaua Bucharest. They are a good side and they have a lot of international players."

Neil McCann is expected to return to the Saints squad after a slight calf strain ruled him out of the 3-1 win against Tottenham on Saturday.

Otherwise Strachan is expected to make few changes, although Anders Svensson could challenge for a place in the starting line-up.