Saturday 1 May 2010 - Kick Off 15.00

Football League Division One

Venue: Priestfield Stadium

Gills Recent League Form - last 6 matches

Southampton Recent League Form - last 6 matches

Gills boss Mark Stimson (right) hopes his squad has the mental strength to stay up after a 2-0 defeat at Champions Norwich City last Saturday, heightened relegations fears.

With Southend joining Stockport in League Two next season, the final two places are potentially between five clubs after 44 games – Wycombe on 42 points, Tranmere 45 points, Gills and Exeter on 47 and Leyton Orient on 48. Our destiny is in our own hands.

Stimson said: "We’ve all got tricky games and there is going to be tension around. It’s probably going to be the team that copes with that the best (who) will stay up. I would have loved to have been safe by now, but you always have to be realistic, look at it, and think it might come down to the wire. It just hasn’t helped with the injuries or suspensions we’ve had, mainly to centre-halves."

Saints boss Alan Pardew (right) believes Southampton could be in the Premier League within two years because "the roots are right" at the football club.

The Saints, eighth in their first season in League One but would be in the automatic promotion shake-up had they not suffered a 10-point deduction.

Pardew believes a good campaign next season ending with promotion could be the stepping stone for a return to the top flight: "We've seen over the years teams can jump through two divisions in two years if the roots are right," he told the Southern Daily Echo.

Manager: Alan Pardew (Record to date: P57 W31 D16 L10)

Nickname: The Saints

Colours: Home – Red & White stripes. Away – Yellow & Blue.

Ground: St Mary’s Stadium

Capacity: 32,689

Transfers in: Jason Puncheon from Plymouth – signed, Lee Barnard from Southend – signed, Jon Otsemobor from Norwich – free, Danny Seaborne from Exeter – free, Jose Fonte from Crystal Palace - £800,000, Radhi Jaidi from Birmingham – free, Dean Hammond from Colchester – signed, Rickie Lambert from Bristol Rovers - £1 million, Dan Harding from Ipswich – free.

Loans in: Michail Antonio from Reading, Papa Waigo N’Diaye from Fiorentina.

Transfers out: Matthew Patterson to Southend – signed, Grzegorz Rasiak to Reading – signed, Stern John to Crystal Palace – free, Jason Euell to Blackpool – free, Bradley Wright-Phillips to Plymouth – free, Andrew Surman to Wolves - £1.2 million, Nathan Dyer to Swansea - £400,000, David McGoldrick to Nott. Forest - £1 million.

Loans out: Lee Molyneux to Port Vale, Oliver Lancashire to Grimsby, Kayne McLaggon to Eastbourne, Jake Thompson to Torquay, Jamie White to Eastleigh, Michael Poke to Torquay.

Released: Marek Saganowski.

We have met 18 times in total to date. Our first was back in the 1920/21 season when we drew 1-1 at Priestfield and lost 0-3 at The Dell in the old Division Three.

A little under nine years ago we faced the Saints in the Carling Cup 3rd round on the 9th October 2001 when we lost 0-2 at Priestfield in front of just under 8,000, with a young James Beattie scoring from the spot for the Saints and Latvian forward Marian Pahars getting their second.

Our last meeting was at St Mary’s last October when we lost 4-1.

The total record reads: Gills wins - 5, Southampton wins - 9, draws - 4.

•  The Saints most capped international is Peter Shilton (49 caps for England).

•  Their best ever League win was 9-3 v. Wolves – 18/9/1965 – D2 (old).

•  Best ever attendance: 32,151 at St. Mary’s v. Arsenal – 29/12/2003–Premier League

•  Most League goals in a season: Derek Reeves with 39 – 1959/60 - D3 (old).

•  Most League appearances: Terry Paine with 713 from 1956 to 1974.

•  Biggest transfer fee received: £8 million for Dean Richards from Spurs – Oct 2001.

•  Biggest transfer fee paid: £4 million for Rory Delap to Derby – Oct 1997.

Mark Stimson will have four first choice defenders missing on Saturday - Simon King and Garry Richards (both ankle), along with right-back Barry Fuller (broken nose) are ruled out for the rest of the season.

In form centre-half Darren Dennehy has returned to Cardiff City after completing the maximum period allowable by his emergency loan.

However centre back Josh Gowling (left) returns after a two-match ban and will compete with youngster Tom Wynter for the spot alongside Mark Bentley, while fellow youngster Jack Payne will retain his right-back role after impressing against Leeds and Norwich City.

The Saints will be without midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin who serves the third of a four game suspension.

Defender Graeme Murty (ankle) is also ruled out after undergoing surgery. Defenders Wayne Thomas and Radhi Jaidi could both return after recovering from calf and hamstring injuries respectively.

Three Saints players were included in the Leage One Team of the Season: (left to right) Rickie Lambert, Kelvin Davis and Jason Puncheon.

Southampton come to Priestfield on Saturday and our final game is away to fellow strugglers Wycombe - one win from those two games could guarantee safety, but nothing is assured. Stimson said: "Who knows what will happen? Tranmere are below us and if they go and win two games and we get one that won’t be enough. We’ll see."

Stimson has dismissed suggestions that this weekend’s task against Southampton is easier now they have no chance of reaching the play-offs. The Saints have the fourth best record in the division, but their ten-point penalty made the task of going straight back up almost impossible.

He said: “I don’t think it’ll make a difference because they are good pros who want to win for their self pride. The type of professionals they’ve got there now are top League One and Championship players. They will have trained all week and will want to win. If we don’t hit the notes we can hit then they will win the match, but if we can perform and they just underachieve we’ll win it.”

Skipper Barry Fuller will miss the final two games of the season after undergoing surgery on his broken nose on Friday.

"That’s our luck and I certainly won’t be doing the lottery," said Gills boss Mark Stimson. "Our luck is not in and to lose someone like Barry is a blow but Jack Payne has stepped in and shown he’s up for the challenge. We’re quite lucky there that we have someone who can step in."

He is also still recovering from a broken arm picked up at Leyton Orient at the end of February.

It’s been reported that Pardew is preparing a bid for Pompey midfielder Hayden Mullins (pictured right). The Saints boss is ready to take advantage of their South Coast neighbours current financial plight with a £1million bid for former West Ham and Palace man.

In fact it was Pardew that paid Crystal Palace £800,000 that took Mullins to Upton Park soon after his appointment as Hammers boss in 2003.

The Saints are currently seventh in League One, but cannot make the play-offs as they are currently seven points behind sixth placed Huddersfield. If they hadn’t had a ten-point deduction they would be battling it out for a promotion or play-off spot.

They are unbeaten in their last nine league outings and have won eight games on their travels this year, drawn nine and lost just five.

Striker Simeon Jackson could and should return to the starting line-up after being relegated to the bench recently after injury and the form of Dennis Oli and Rene Howe. However the goals haven’t flowed so maybe time to start the 17-goal top scorer.

Loan striker Chris Dickson could feature for the final time before returning to parent club Charlton Athletic after an unimpressive second loan spell at Priestfield, though he hasn’t had too many outings?

Gills eleven from (4-4-2): Alan Julian (GK), Simon Royce (GK), John Nutter, Josh Gowling, Kevin Maher, Curtis Weston, Stuart Lewis, Chris Palmer, Danny Jackman, Mark Bentley, Dennis Oli, Simeon Jackson, Chris Dickson, James Walker, Andy Barcham, Jack Payne, Tom Wynter, Rashid Yussuff, Rene Howe, Adam Miller, Connor Essam.

As well as the three top League One players above Gills will have to watch Saints strikers Adam Lallana (below left) and Lee Barnard (below right) who have scored around 40 goals between them this season. Lee Barnard was transferred from Southend United.

Saints eleven from (4-4-2): Kelvin Davis (GK), Andrej Pernecky (GK), Tommy Forecast (GK), Dan Harding, Wayne Thomas, Jason Puncheon, Chris Perry, Radhi Jaidi, Rickie Lambert, Simon Gillett, Papa Waigo, Paul Wotton, Lee Holmes, Jose Fonte, Dean Hammond, Lee Barnard, Joseph Mills, Adam Lallana, Anthony Pulis, Lloyd James, Kayne McLaggon, Jamie White, Bartosz Bilakowski, Oscar Gobern, Jack Boyle, Ryan Doble, Jack Saville, Callum McNish, Danny Seaborne, Garyn Preen, Michail Antonio, David Connolly, Jon Otsemobor, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Mr Mick Russell from Hertfordshire is our referee this weekend for the final home game of the season.

Married with three children, forty one year old Mick is a Gas Service Engineer who started refereeing in the early 1990’s, progressing through the South Midlands League to reach the National List of assistant referees in 2000 and was promoted to the referees’ list in 2004.Enjoys a game of golf and spending what spare time he has with his family, and is a licensed FA Coach.

We last had the pleasure of his company back in November when Gills won 1-0 at home to Oldham Athletic courtesy of a goal from Curtis Weston. The Latics picked up six cautions on that occasion with none for Gills. This season he has taken charge of 38 games producing 92 yellow cards and 3 reds

His assistants are Mr Richard Kendall from Bedfordshire and Mr Adrian Sannerude from Suffolk. Our fourth official is Mr David Buck from Kent.

(Referee information courtesy of www.refworld.com