Rickie Lambert has confessed that he was actually a little disappointed to be paired with his former club in the F.A Cup.
Although he is pleased with a return to his old stomping ground ahead of the proposed league fixture later in the season, the Liverpudlian forward admitted he would have liked an easier task to make roads into the competition.
"I was excited when we got them but I was also a bit gutted really because it's one of the hardest draws we could have got in the whole first round of the F.A Cup," he said. "I want to stay in this competition as long as possible so to get Bristol Rovers away in the first round is not really what we wanted.
"They will definitely be up for it, it will be a good atmosphere, but we're all looking forward to the cup because I think everyone raises their game in this competition."
Lambert revealed that as soon as Rovers' name came out of the hat only one name would follow, but that was the first time he had given any thought about facing his old side once more.
"I didn't think about it before the draw but when it was made and I saw Bristol Rovers come up, I had a funny feeling that Southampton was going to follow and it did.
"I've been looking forward to it since the draw was made on the telly. I've got mixed feelings but I'm going there confident, nervous and excited so I can't wait for it.
"We want to do well in the cups, we want to go as far as we can, and I don't think there's any reason why we can't do well in them."
The striker's determination to progress in the competition showed two seasons' ago which everyone connected to Southampton will need no reminding of, when he famously dumped his current employers out of the competition with a late winner in the 5th round.
"It was one of the biggest games that I'd played in," he recalled. "There was a quarter final place up for grabs, and it was a good day for me at the time, but I can understand that the Saints fans want revenge for that now and that's all I'll be trying to do on Friday.
"Their lads have been pretty quiet this week, I've only spoken to a couple of them but it's not surprising. I don't think they want to give anything away so it's a case of 'don't go speaking to Lambo' I think, which is understandable, but I'm not really worried because we've just got to concentrate on our game.
"I'll be talking to them before and afterwards as normal, but during the 90 minutes they will be trying their best to stop us. We all know how they play because we saw them a couple of weeks ago. We've got to learn from that and respect them, but at the same time we've got to be confident in ourselves."
