EVEN though the season has just more or less started, the pressure is already on certain managers, one of them being Steve Bruce.

His Newcastle side, who Saints face today, have played two and lost two in the league, and also gone out of the Carabao Cup on penalties.

He will be hoping things can change for him, as they have with the Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who apparently was booed off the pitch after losing their first two games. But he came back with a 6-0 win on Wednesday night in the cup. Even though it was against a lower league team, West Brom would normally not be that easy to hammer.

Steve will know better than most managers what the atmosphere at St James’s Park will be, having been born not far up the road.

Also the Southampton players, some of whom have not possibly been there before, will have been brought up to date with Ralph’s recent signing, Adam Armstrong, who was born in Newcastle.

If I could paint a little picture, when I was a youngster I would walk over the bridge from Gateshead, join loads of other youngsters in the car parks outside of the ground listening to the crowd roar. And then 10 minutes from the end, the gates opened to let people go out and that’s when we sneaked in!

That was the first stage. The next part was to climb up behind the back row of the crowd, who then would lift you up and you were passed down over their heads, sometimes being dropped. But eventually getting to the front where they would lift you onto the little wall about two yards off the touchline.

I’m sure that isn’t allowed nowadays, but it gives you some idea of the passion for the game, which has never gone away.

The game last week at St Mary’s was special, as it was the first time we had had a full house since the pandemic started and I think it makes the world of difference.

Passionate supporters who travel to all away games will know how far away this one is today. I remember reading they will be gathering to start with at 5am to eventually get to the ground an hour-and-a-half before kick-off. Good luck to them and don’t forget to take your sandwiches!

But all in all, it’s good to have the crowds back. The atmosphere in the Premier League is better than anywhere and I think from Southampton’s point of view, the draw against Man United was a good result. I think Man United in fact were lucky to get away with a point. I’m sure Ralph would congratulate his team.

He then, of course, apparently warned them to not underestimate a lower division team in the cup as some players often tend to do. I suppose if they’ve come to England from abroad, they might think a club two or three divisions down would be a walkover.

It turned out Ralph and his team got it spot on at Newport with not just a win, but a resounding eight goals, giving them the highest away win in the club’s history.

It will be interesting from a player’s point of view, with the size of squads nowadays, some who possibly thought they should be in the team for the first two league games but only got in for the cup tie. They will want to know if they’ve been kept in. So that is a little problem the manager will find, having made nine changes in midweek.

A player in a team winning 8-0 will surely think he should be in the next game. I can understand the manager having to rotate, but that’s a sort of problem you have when you’re winning, which I presume is more preferential to when you’re losing.

So let’s keep it going. I think the Newcastle result will be like the one I predicted would be okay last weekend against the other United, Manchester - to come away with a draw would be satisfactory. A win of course would be terrific.

The next home game would be another one where the crowd can sing their praises, rather than as happened at Arsenal after their first two games, getting booed off.