Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl says last season’s trip to Wembley has whetted his appetite for another FA Cup run.
Saints suffered semi-final heartbreak at the hands of eventual winners Leicester in April after defeating Shrewsbury, Arsenal, Wolves and Bournemouth en route to the national stadium.
The south-coast club begin this season’s cup campaign with a third-round trip to Championship side Swansea and Hasenhuttl has ambitions of mounting another serious challenge for silverware.
“We definitely want to go as strong as possible for the cup,” said the Austrian, whose team were beaten 1-0 by the Foxes last term. “It’s always a big opportunity.
“The experience we had last season in the semi-final at Wembley was fantastic for us as players, even not with a full crowd.
“It makes you want to do it again. We want to go there again.
“I think it’s getting tougher every year because the big teams take it more seriously because a title is a title.
“The big teams have much more pressure to win trophies than we have so it’s getting much harder every year, but it’s always possible.
“We’ve shown last season that we made the semi-final and it was not so far to go on to win something.
“It’s the shortest way to get a title, to be a winner.”
Southampton, FA Cup winners in 1976, are missing seven players for Saturday’s trip to south Wales.
Che Adams, Kyle Walker-Peters and youngster Thierry Small have been ruled out by positive coronavirus tests, while Tino Livramento (knee) and Will Smallbone (calf) are injured and Mohammed Salisu is banned.
Mali winger Moussa Djenepo is on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.
