The ex-England skipper watched the cup draw TV before watching Saints defeat Charlton at St Mary's on Sunday and said: "We can go down there and get a draw and finish the job off at home.

"With all those non-league teams and teams from the lower divisions still in the hat, I could hardly believe it when we were drawn to play at Southampton.

"It's going to be a very tough draw for us - it could only have been worse if we had come out of the hat second with Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal.

"Southampton are particularly strong at home, and watching them on Sunday you can see that Gordon Strachan has got them playing again.

"People may be tempted to say that, unlike Newcastle, Southampton do not have an FA Cup tradition.

"But they were finalists last season and they won the competition in 1976 through that Bobby Stokes goal, while we haven't won it since 1955.

"But we have to be looking to win the FA Cup, starting off by beating Southampton in the third round, especially after what happened to us at Wolverhampton last season."

The game is scheduled for Saturday, January 3.

United chairman Freddy Shepherd added: "This has got to change sometime and why not in the FA Cup?

"Obviously we were looking for a home draw - we never seem to get things easy.

"But if we have to do it the hard way then we will do it the hard way. And I thought we saw some of the old Newcastle against Liverpool on Saturday.

"We passed the ball around like the old days and all of our confidence came flooding back."