It's not long now until Southampton's 2025/26 season officially kicks off.
With England's World Cup hopes crushed into smithereens once more, Saints fans will now be counting the days down until they can watch their beloved team in competitive Championship action, again.
Before the hustle and bustle of the second tier envelops the life of every Southampton supporter, though, the EFL Cup is the official season opener on the evening of the 7th of August.
To start the campaign, Saints fans will be travelling in their masses to watch their team face Colchester United on the Essex seaside, in a fixture that has laid dormant for the past 15 years.
Saints last played Colchester in 2011
Amazingly, the last meeting between the South Coast giants and the League Two hosts came in 2011, when both teams competed in League One.
Alan Pardew was the Saints boss at the time, and he guided the away side to a 2-0 win on their travels to the JobServe Community Stadium, with Dean Hammond and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sharing out the goals.
Looking back, it's quite the star-studded starting XI Pardew selected for such a lowly division, with Rickie Lambert up top, alongside fellow club legend Jose Fonte, who would both eventually rise to the Premier League on the books of Southampton.
If Saints fans want to get in early and collect an away day ticket, tickets are now on sale for this trip to face Danny Cowley's men, with a full allocation of 1500 tickets up for grabs.
It's not a stadium that every Southampton fan will have stepped foot in, as the Saints soared up to the top-flight in the years after their 2-0 victory, so there will be intrigue among the away fans to tick this one off while they can.
There will also be big hopes in the air that their treasured team can start the 25/26 season on the best possible footing, before the bread and butter of Championship action kicks into gear.
There'll be big hopes for an opening win
Southampton shouldn't struggle with the task at hand, as their opponents call League Two home, while they want to break back into the Premier League.
The expectation will be that a comfortable victory is secured, which will gift them some confidence, heading into their proper season opener against Watford in the Championship.
In their favour, too, the Saints haven't been knocked out of the first round of the EFL Cup since the 2023/24 season, when they came unstuck to Gillingham 3-1.
The last two campaigns have seen them be knocked out by the might of Liverpool, so they will be praying there's no unexpected upset on their travels to Essex, so they can aim to reach the quarter final stages, like their offerings during the 2024/25 season.
They haven't always picked up the best results against the U's, however, when looking back at their limited meetings, with Colchester winning twice on their home soil against Tonda Eckert's men in 2006 and 2009, before Pardew and Co. collected three points in 2011.
There won't be any mass hysteria if Southampton were to lose again against their League Two hosts, but after such a positive summer, it would be a slight blow, ahead of a Championship campaign that sees the Saints immediately be hamstrung by a four point deduction.
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