The League Cup this week caught the eye, mainly from Southampton’s point of view as the game against Premier League rivals Brighton gave us our first win of the season.

The talk for most supporters was that there were ten changes from both managers in their teams.

At one time this would have been classed as a reserve game, but if anybody saw last week’s Saints programme there was a picture in of the current squad with six staff and 27 players.

A point was made before the Brighton game that international players like Yoshida, Gabbiadini, Davis and other seniors had not started a game so it was understandable that Mark Hughes would take the opportunity to give them an outing.

This would never have happened at one time because the squads were mainly about 13 or 14 players. The only time we made changes was if a player got injured, and continuity has always been the main aim.

Whilst I am sure Mark and the players will be delighted with a win and those that weren’t selected would understand why, the next problem comes very quickly.

Those who gave the club the first win will be asking if they are playing Crystal Palace today or whether the manager was saving last week’s team, who didn’t win but apparently gave the manager more hope for the future?

Let’s hope it all works out, both on and off the field, because, let’s face it, if you were picked to play in the first win and then find you are not even on the bench for the next game that could cause a little unrest in the dressing room.

This is when strong management comes in.

The staff who deal with the players day in and day out will have to explain the situation.

I could never understand why, for instance, the reserve leagues which we used to have have been changed to under-23s, which does give an opportunity for senior first players but only a restricted number in each team.

Also, they do not play as many games in a season as the first team.

Why did this happen?

You would think with the bigger squads more games are needed.

Let’s see what changes, if any, are made this weekend, but I’m sure everyone including Mark and his staff will be hoping that the win lifted everyone’s spirits and there is a good atmosphere within the squad where players will be behind each other win, lose or draw.

  • Mr Mourinho, not surprisingly, caught the headlines again.

He surely couldn’t be shocked that the press were ready to get into him, especially as before the home game against Tottenham he turned up 30 minutes early for his pre-match conference, spent just over four minutes with the handful in the room and left before most of the others turned up.

He then lost the game 3-0, stormed out asking for respect because while they let three goals in he pointed out he was the only manager at present in the league who had won three Premier League titles.

He should remember a few years ago when he was talking about his big rival Arsene Wenger he called him ‘an expert in failure.’ Not much respect there, and of course Arsene had also won three Premier League titles.

  • I read this week that one of our local legends, Dave Diaper, who has been with Sholing, would you believe, for 19 years, and in his career has won ten trophies, has now completed 1,000 games at non-league level.

That includes the only time I had reason to speak to him in wishing him good luck before they won the FA Vase at Wembley in 2014.

The LMA have a Hall of Fame which I was delighted to be an early member of for 1,000 league games.

Whilst non-league are not members, I am sure that he will have gained the respect of all managers whether they are in the Premier League or his division.