Mark Hughes spoke to the pres after Saints went down to a 3-0 defeat at Championship side Derby County, read his thoughts here.

The Saints boss was obviously disappointed with the result, but is not unduly concerned at this stage of the pre season.

“It’s pre-season. Clearly we want to do better than we showed but credit to Derby, they look in good nick and are a week ahead of us and that makes a difference at this stage.

to say they were nice and bright and at times we weren’t bright enough.

“We have got a good week next week when we go away and we have got to look to get the sharper elements of our play up to speed. We have only been back a couple of weeks and with the travel we’ve had we’ve had to concentrate on being a little bit careful with them.

“We can look to good work now. We have had just a week back home which has helped us but on today’s showing we need a little bit more.”

He added: “There is a little bit of a lack of intensity and anticipation and a lot of that is to do with timing.

“When you are in a good run of form and into the games those moments and situations happen and you recognise them quickly and you do something about it but we were a little bit slow in terms of our anticipation.

“We need to step up. We have had three games now, we have conceded too many goals than I would like so we still need to do the fundamentals right in terms of getting the defensive work right.

“I am glad that the situations that could have been addressed have been highlighted so we can highlight that and learn from them.”

New signing Jannik Vestergaard was at fault with one of the goals but it wasn’t anything that unduly worried the Saints manager.

“He’s a big guy but he’s got a good appreciation of a pass, there was one incident where he mistimed but that’s just a timing issue so he will be ok."

“Sometimes you worry about maybe coming from a different type of league but from the Bundesliga to the Premier League is probably the best transition you can have.

“There is stuff to work on and that’s what pre-season is for.”

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 11:25 - Jul 22 Not much more you can say really. He's seen the problems and now it's down to him to find solutions. The squad may be building up on fitness, but they need to be stronger mentally when the time comes to play "real matches" in the Prem. Will be interesting to see if MH keeps back those former loaness (Gallagher, Reed and Targett) whowere out last season because if we haven't solved the problems by 11th August, it would make sense to keep them at the club and not have to make last day transfer bids for " the next Carrillo/ Boufal". ..or whatever he may be called.

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simmo400 added 11:36 - Jul 22 Better to be beaten in every friendly and win against Burnley thean to have easy victories and loose in the league. I feel that saints are going to struggle to score goals in every game anyway. Not convinced Spatkie is our man. Give her m until Xmas.
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helpineedsomebody added 11:45 - Jul 22 do they sack managers in the close season yesterday result just about sums up mr average , belieable excuses, not in any way the system he plays is why we lost ,we are a week behind. all we need now is the chairman to come out & say he is the right man for this club. still very lucky only one person picks up the tab now the owner , still has to pay back the bank £200million pounds good luck bring back the koemans now

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chumley added 14:32 - Jul 22 Same old comments he used at Stoke...get ready for long winter I,m afraid....
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elisawise added 07:31 - Jul 23 I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any helpful hints for newbie blog writers? I’d certainly appreciate it. http://rollingskygame.com/run-3
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VijicSaint added 17:24 - Jul 23 Hughes seems to be weak on defence strategy and training as he was at Stoke. I thank him for keeping us up but he will not enjoy much success here and ultimately we will have a new manager within 12 months.
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