Saints taking cup seriously

Saints come into the Capital One Cup third-round encounter fresh from a morale-boosting 4-1 defeat of Aston Villa, which saw them notch up their first Premier League points of the campaign.

Many of those that started at the weekend will be rested tomorrow in favour of the south coast side's peripheral squad players and academy talents.

That said, Crosby insists Southampton are taking the competition seriously and expect a tough clash against Dave Jones' Wednesday.

"It's a competition that we're taking very seriously and we're down to the last 32," Nigel Adkins' assistant told Saints Player.

"Over the last few years, we have blooded a lot of young players in this competition because the vision of the club is to get a lot of home-grown players through into the first team so we'll continue to do that.

"There's competition for places now so there's a chance for other players to come into the team and stake a claim.

"We made change s at Stevenage [in the second round] and, if you look back over last season, we made changes in this competition then as well.

"We are taking it seriously because it is a pathway to a major competition and a major trophy.

"We're up against a very good Sheffield Wednesday team. Dave Jones has done an incredible job and at the back end of last season he had a great impact.

"I think they'll come here trying to cause an upset."

Opponents Wednesday head to St Mary's on the back of four successive defeats.

Before that, though, the Owls were unbeaten in 19 games and their last win knocked Premier League Fulham out of the Capital One Cup.

Crosby is wary of the threat posed by last season's League One runners-up, who will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Southampton and Norwich by securing back-to-back promotions to the top flight.

"They might think it's a little bit easy, but it certainly isn't," he said.

"When one team has done it and then another team, people see that the momentum from winning games in the previous season means getting off to a good start breeds confidence again.

"Huddersfield have got off to a good start in the Championship as well.

"[Wednesday] have brought in some good players and a lot of experience in the summer, and Dave Jones is a good manager who has done a good job wherever he's been at. They'll come here looking to cause an upset."