IT’S almost a year since Saints suffered a demoralising 1-0 defeat at Swindon but Dean Hammond says that 12 months on things are totally different.

That tricky game at the County Ground was under the caretaker watch of Dean Wilkins, pictured right, who was handed a hugely difficult task following the controversial sacking of Alan Pardew.

Saints’ first game without Pardew was also against Swindon as the club went out of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy with a 3-0 St Mary’s defeat.

But when Saints arrive at Swindon tonight for their Carling Cup second round tie it will be as a high flying Championship team whilst Swindon are struggling in League Two.

“It was difficult when we went there last year,” recalled Hammond.

“We lost 1-0 and we didn’t have a manager at the time.

“But we’re going there in a different situation now.

“We’re a Championship team and we’re second in the table, and they’ve got a new manager, so it’s two different teams.”

Hammond himself is waiting to hear if he will get a rest tonight having started all five of Saints’ league games so far this season, including the first loss at Leicester on Saturday.

“It’s nice to have a game on Tuesday night,” he said.

“It will be an important game for us to go into that.

“It will be a hard game against Swindon, but we’ll go into it and try and win the game.”

One man almost certain to play is Swindon’s Matt Ritchie.

The Portsmouth fan and former Fratton Park player scored the consolation the last time the sides met, which was a 4-1 Saints win.

“Being a Pompey fan and playing for Portsmouth I got a bit of stick but it was nice to score against them and it’s nice to get another chance to play against them, maybe score and hopefully the result will go our way this time,” he said.

“We believe in ourselves and the team and I think we showed what we can do against Bristol (City in the Caring Cup first round).

“Southampton will come here and we’ll make it tough for them.

“They’re on fire at the moment so it will be a tough game but if we perform and work hard I’m sure we can beat them.

“They’ve got a lot of young, talented good players but so have we and hopefully we can prove our worth.

“I’ve only played against them once before but Bristol City was a great performance and we have been performing like that throughout the weeks in the league.

“The quality of the team and the squad shone through and we got what we deserved.”