Saints fans who follow the club away from home, face 6 of the next 8 games including next Tuesdays Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool away from home, how has thie been allowed to happen.

If we take out that trip to Anfield, from Saturdays trip to Hull to our visit to Blackburn Rovers on 25th October, a timescale of 5 weeks part of which will be an international break, Southampton will play 7 games in the Championship and 5 of them will be away from home.

Just how has that been allowed to happen, firstly that is a tough spell for a team that is looking to kick start it's season after a demanding first month which saw a lot of ins & outs in it's squad, but also for Saints supporters who will face 4 long haul trips during that time.

On Saturday we start with Hull a round trip of 510 miles and around 5 hours each way if we include a short stop en route, then it is Sheffield United on a Tuesday evening, a mere 420 mile round trip and 4 hours each way, meaning that coming home Saints fans will be lucky to get home by 2.30am.

Four days later we travel to Derby County, 340 mile round trip and 3 1/2 hours each way.

Then another evening trip to Bristol City, although the A36 via Salisbury is shorter by about 20 miles, it takes a lot longer, so the recommended route via the A34 to Newbury and M4 is a 220 mile round trip and the best part of 2 hours each way.

Finally another 510 mile round trip to Blackburn and again with a stop 5 hours each way.

So for the travelling Red & White Army that is a total distance in a 5 week period of 2,000 miles and a staggering 39 hours travelling time, assuming that you go by car and that there is no traffic jams along the way, those going by coach will take e little bit longer.

How the Hell or should I say Hull has this been allowed to happen, football supporters always complain about those who compile the fixtures taking no account for the travelling away fans, but this is absolutely disgusting, both from the supporters point of view, but also the team itself who have 5 tough away trips which could see them drop points and playing catch up.

There is just no balance or for that matter common sense applied by those who have compiled these fixture.

Saints will take big followings to all of these games, but this could have a knock on affect that if the team is does badly it will knock our confidence and not only affect performances on the field, but the revenue from home games after it if we are still stuck in mid table because of the absurdity of playing almost a quarter of our 23 away fixtures in just over a month.

To put that in perspective this season lasts almost exactly 10 months, yet if we add in QPR on 5th November we will have played of our 23 away games in just 6 1/2 weeks, that's 26% of the away fixtures in just 13% of the season.

There is little that can be done now, I don't know if any other club has had this time of fixture list thrust upon them, we just have to grin and bear it.

All Photos Via Reuters

Dellwizard added 16:16 - Sep 18 Without looking at the fixture list, does this mean we have a period where we have a few home games clumped together ?
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