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Saints Coast To Victory At Brighton

Saints made it five out of five in pre season as they saw off Brighton in a game they dominated from start to finish.

Saints continued their great pres season form as they kept their ubeaten record with a 3-1 victory at the Amex Stadium, the starting line up included latest signing Ryan Bertrand although there was no Morgan Schneiderlin who it was said was not scheduled to play anyway due to his recent return to St mary's after the World Cup, other than that it was a fairly strong starting line up from Saints.

Saints took the lead on 19 minutes when Tadic received the ball on the edge of the area, turned and drilled in a low shot, from then on Saints took a strong grip on the game that they rarely released and had several good chances.

The second came on the stroke of half time when a Pelle shot was blocked and when the ball fell to Steven Davis he slotted home from 12 yards to complete a dominant half for Saints with Brighton failing to muster any chance of note.

Just after the hour mark it was three with the goal of the game, James ward prowse won possession fully 30 yards out, took a stride or two and lashed home a shot into the top corner that the keeper could only watch.

With 15 minutes left Saints conceded their first goal of pre season getting caught out trying to play from the back and Lualua reduced the arrears.

But that was the only real blip and Saints saw out the final 15 minutes without any further scares to run out deserving winners.

Whilst as has often been said pre season is no real guide to the coming season it has to be good that Saints seem to be playing as a unit and have a team spirit about them, the core of the team looks good and now all it needs is a few new quality signings to restore the strength of the squad overall, if that happens in the next week then Saints will be well prepared for the final pre season friendly against Bayer Leverkusen at St Mary's.

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