Southampton

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Southampton midfielder Shea Charles could be sidelined until late December with a hamstring injury.

The 21-year-old Northern Ireland international had played all but 22 minutes of Saints' opening 12 Championship games, and also started their first two EFL Cup ties.

But he limped off nine minutes from the end of the the 2-1 defeat at Blackburn on Saturday, to add to boss Will Still's injury problems.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's home game against Preston (15:00 GMT) Still told BBC Radio Solent: "Shea is out for a significant amount of time, six or seven weeks, he's done his hamstring.

"Sam Edozie rolled his ankle in training and is out for four to five weeks, which is annoying as he was coming back into the picture, Ross Stewart and Elias Jelert are still out."

There was slightly more positive in other parts of the squad ahead of the visit of North End, who are seventh, 13 places and seven points clear of Saints.

"Cam Archer hasn't trained all week due to his ankle which is why we brought him off (on Saturday). He's a maybe but it's looking a bit bleak as he hasn't trained," Still said.

"Flynn Downes has got a knock in training on his knee so we're trying to speed that up to see if he's ready.

"Jay Robinson was also ill last week but played 60 minutes on Wednesday which is what we wanted so he's going well.

"We've got a big squad and it's now being used and put to the test."

"The players are getting away with this massively. It's up to them to sort this out but the manager will be the one that will get it because, for whatever reason, the players are not looking that confident under him."

Former Saints striker Rickie Lambert joins the podcast to discuss the pressure mounting on Southampton boss Will Still, while BBC Radio Lancashire's Andy Bayes talks Preston North End before their trip to St Mary's on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

Listen to the full episode of the Saints Social and more Southampton content on BBC Sounds.

Steven Wyeth
BBC Final Score reporter

Image source, Rex Features

"You don't know what you're doing."

It's a familiar refrain from disgruntled football fans, although not usually directed at the manager of a team that's leading.

However, that was the reaction Southampton boss Will Still faced when he made a change with a quarter of the game remaining at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Replacing Southampton's goalscorer - and arguably best player - Leo Scienza with defender Jack Stephens in a reshuffled midfield sparked a mutinous reaction.

Those away fans' worst fears were quickly realised and as the game swung in Blackburn's favour, so too did a toxic mood switch from one end of Ewood Park to the other.

A first home win of the season allowed Rovers fans a rare moment of jubilation to punctuate protests over Venkys' ownership.

Instead the final whistle discontent came from the long-suffering Southampton supporters who have now seen their side win just four of their last 50 league games.

Southampton manager Will Still says Saints supporters can vent their frustrations towards him after they slipped to 20th in the Championship following defeat at Blackburn.

Still told BBC Radio Solent: "It was the same story on a different day. We should be 3-0 up, but we make two mistakes, defend poorly, and then concede two really soft goals.

"We shouldn't have been in that situation, we should have been two or three goals up at the stage and we have done everything we could apart from put it in the goal.

"We have a lot of things to work on and a lot of things to get right, and the most important one of those is working on putting the ball in the back of the net.

"I can understand the fans' frustrations, it's how the world works, when you don't win you become under pressure. It's OK for the fans to be annoyed at me if they want to vent their frustrations at anyone."

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Southampton forward Tom Fellows will miss Saturday's trip to Blackburn Rovers (15:00 BST) because of illness.

"Tom Fellows still isn't right. He was ill the other day at half-time and hasn't felt great since then so he won't be with us," Saints boss Will Still told BBC Radio Solent.

"We've got a bug or an illness going around that we are trying to control."

Forward Jay Robinson and midfielder Caspar Jander are also struggling with sickness but will make the trip.

Right-back Mads Roerslev is in training and will also travel after missing the past two league games with an inflamed Achilles. However, left-back Welington has picked up a knock in his knee and may not be available.

"[Welington] trained today but it's not perfect so we will do what we need to do with those. But we've got enough players in those positions to deal with it," Still added.

Blackburn are one of three sides in the Championship yet to win at home this season, with their last victory at Ewood Park coming in April.

Southampton's only away win so far came at Sheffield United at the end of September.

• Blackburn Rovers have only won one of their past six league games against Southampton (D2 L3), failing to score in either league meeting in 2023-24.

• Southampton have only won in one of their past 16 league visits to Blackburn Rovers (D4 L11), 2-0 in November 1998 with goals from Matt Oakley and Steve Basham.

• Blackburn are winless in their five home league games this season (D1 L4), last failing to win any of their opening six in 1979-80 in the third tier.

• Since their opening day win against Wrexham, Southampton have won just one of their 10 league games since (D6 L3) and could lose successive Championship games for the first time since April 2024 (run of three).

• Southampton's Adam Armstrong has four goals across his past six league games, though he's yet to score in five previous Championship appearances against former side Blackburn.

"There is a fragility about this group which, if you were an opponent, you would want to get stuck into Saints because you think you could upset them and ruffle them."

Former Southampton midfielder Jo Tessem joins BBC Radio Solent's Adam Blackmore to analyse Saints' performance in Tuesday's 3-1 defeat at Bristol City and growing pressure on boss Will Still.

Listen to the full episode of Goin' Home with Adam and Jo and more Southampton content on BBC Sounds.

Southampton manager Will Still said his side gave themselves a "mountain to climb" in their 3-1 defeat by Bristol City.

Saints were 1-0 up but conceded two Scott Twine goals in seven second-half minutes to eventually lose - their third in the league this campaign.

"We've been totally dominant and in control for the first half again, scored a great goal and created three if not four really big opportunities to kill the game off and win it," Still told BBC Radio Solent.

"[We] come back out after the break, played really well for 10, 15 minutes, hit the crossbar, somehow missed from a couple of yards out.

"And to make things as worse as they can get a shot that's going about six yards away from goal and gets deflected and hits the post, somehow falls into their feet and we concede.

"The last one you're chasing the game again, trying to look forwards, pass it sideways and they've not had to do very much to win the game of football and we give ourselves a mountain to climb every single time.

"It's just not going our way. You can talk about tactics, intensity, whatever, if you watch the first half as a whole, if we don't make a mistake they've literally almost not come over the halfway line."

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Southampton defender Elias Jelert is set to be out for "four to six weeks" with a quad injury.

The Dane, who is on a season-long loan from Galatasaray, was left out of the squad for Tuesday's visit to Ashton Gate against Bristol City in the Championship.

"Eli's pulled his quad and he's out for sort of four to six weeks, which is frustrating," manager Will Still said before kick-off.

Jelert played 70 minutes of Southampton's 0-0 draw with Swansea last weekend, the most minutes he has played for the club in the league since signing on 31 August after two late appearances from the bench.

Southampton will look to take their chances when they make the trip to Bristol City for Tuesday's headline act (20:00 BST).

The Saints squandered multiple opportunities in their goalless encounter with Swansea City on Saturday but will want to be more ruthless in front of the net when they face seventh placed Robins.

The hosts ended a four match winless streak last time out to keep themselves within reach of the top six and a victory here could see them back in the play-off places.

• Bristol City have won five of their last six league meetings with Southampton, losing the other 1-0 in November 2023.

• Southampton have lost each of their last four league visits to Bristol City, last avoiding defeat via a 1-0 win in December 1979.

• Bristol City have lost two of their last three home league games (D1), more than their previous 17 beforehand (W12 D4 L1).

• Southampton have earned more points in their last two away league games (4 – W1 D1) than their previous nine beforehand (3 – D3 L6).

• Bristol City are unbeaten in their last nine midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) league games (W4 D5) since going down 0-1 to Watford in November 2024.

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Aldershot Town have signed Burton Albion midfielder Ciaran Gilligan on loan until the end of the season and re-signed defender Will Armitage on a three-month loan from Southampton.

Gilligan, 23, progressed through the Brewers' youth set-up and has represented the club 60 times in League One since making his senior debut in 2020.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Armitage made a total of 24 appearances for the Shots during the second half of last season, including their FA Trophy final success against Spennymoor Town at Wembley.

He had been on loan at Aldershot's National League rivals Brackley Town in recent weeks, featuring four times.

Southampton host Swansea City on Saturday (12:30 BST) as they look extend their unbeaten run (W1 D2) to a fourth game.

The season hasn't unfolded as well as the Saints would have liked so far, finding themselves 17th on the table and with work to do to make up the eight points they lag behind pace makers Coventry City.

Swansea, meanwhile, had a good start but have only won one of their past five league games (D2 L2), leaving them three points under the top six.

• Southampton have won each of their last three league matches against Swansea City, last winning four on the bounce in August 1935.

• Swansea City have won just one of their last 15 away league games against Southampton (D3 L11), while they've failed to score on their previous three trips.

• Southampton are unbeaten in their last three Championship matches (W1 D2), their best unbeaten league run since going four without defeat in April 2024 under Russell Martin.

• Swansea City have won four of their last seven away Championship matches (L3), as many as they'd won in their previous 17 on the road (W4 D4 L9).

• Southampton have the second best xG in the Championship this season (15.5), but they have only scored 11 goals, underperforming by 4.5 goals. Only Sheffield United have a worse ratio this season (-6.7).

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Southampton boss Will Still has said that striker Ross Stewart will be "out for a substantial period" with a hamstring injury.

Stewart was substituted in the first half of Saints' 1-1 draw with Derby County before the international break and now appears to be out until 2026.

"Ross is out for a substantial period," Still told BBC Radio Solent.

"I don't think we'll see him on the pitches before the new year which is a big blow, the injury is his hamstring and linked to his tendon which is not the best news.

"We have looked really positive and good with him up there in the last few games."

Since joining Saints, Stewart's career has been ridden with injuries, initially arriving in 2023 from Sunderland with an Achilles issue.

In the 2023-24 season, Stewart missed 31 games due to injury, and last campaign he was absent from 27 matches while on the sidelines.

In 80 appearances for the Black Cats, he scored 40 goals and since his switch to St Mary's he has only played 27 times and scored three goals.

"If I were in that changing room, I would definitely not be ruling out automatic promotion... yet."

Former Saints defender Dan Harding joins BBC Radio Solent as they take a look at a lacklustre season for Southampton so far and countdown their top 10 best individual performances from a Saints player in a match.

Listen to the latest episode of the Saints Social podcast and more Southampton content on BBC Sounds.