Ward-Prowse wants win in Wearside

Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse has spoken out about how he is desperate to end Southampton’s poor recent record on their travels to The Stadium Of Light.

Southampton have failed to win in their last six visits to Sunderland, in the league or the cup, with the most recent coming earlier this year when Saints succumbed to a 2-1 defeat.

That was a game that Ward-Prowse will certainly want to forget. He was sent off, giving away a penalty, after fouling Jermain Defoe in the box. That was one of two penalties to Sunderland in that game, both of which were scored by Jordi Gomez.

Southampton do travel to Sunderland in high spirits having won five of their last seven matches in all competitions, as well as being unbeaten away from home in the Premier League this season.

It’s a game from last year that we all look back on and note that it was a real bad result for us.

Going into the games off the recent run of games that we’ve had means we’re all very confident.

Sunderland come into the game having conceded six goals away at Everton and if their defence is anywhere near the level they were at last week, Southampton will have a very enjoyable afternoon.

Of course any team under Sam Allardyce is going to be difficult to face and they’re a very, very passionate football club as they always are in that part of the country,” said Ward-Prowse.

I don’t think Sam Allardyce will be happy with the way that his team performed last weekend, so it’s up to us to stand up to the fight and the challenge at the start of the game and come through.

When asked if Saints were in a confident mood, Ward-Prowse said this:

Yeah, I think so.

After the poor start we had with the disappointment of not qualifying for Europe, to turn that around is great credit to the players, and it gives something back to the fans who were obviously disappointed not to reach Europe as well, so we’re excited and happy that we’ve reached those levels again.

We want to qualify for Europe automatically which we unfortunately didn’t do last year, but I think the Premier League form is for the taking and we’ve got to keep on playing the way we have been.