Southampton At Eastleigh The Verdict

Saints travelled the short distance to the Silverlake Stadium on Friday night and left after a comprehensive win that has kicked off the pre season programme in fine style, so what have we learned from this ?

This was never going to be about a truly competitive game of football, it didn't take a crystal ball to tell you that this would be a game of two halves and that Saints would play a different side in the second half than the first, plus several other substitutions.

From the moment that Adam Armstrong scored in the 7th minute the result was a formality, the truth was, that there was a massive gulf in standard between the two teams.

Although both halves teams were a mixture in terms of genuine first team regulars, fringe players and youth, they totally out passed the home side and to be blunt Saints could easily have got into double figures.

Russell Martin used 22 players over the course of the game, with new signings Ronnie Edwards and Charlie Taylor both included from the start, while Sugawara and Nathan Wood came on in the second half.

Saints shuffled and reshuffled, at one stage Flynn Downes appeared to be running the show from the back, it was clearly an exercise in getting comfortable with the ball, rather than fine tuning.

I would certainly not get too carried away with this result, Eastleigh did not look a good side and part of that was the fact that they were employing several triallists in the game.

Highlights for Saints included Tyler Dibling who looked the part and could well be ready to play a part this season, the goal from Yukinari Sugawara was well taken and the Japanese defender looked the part.

Another plus point was that the captain was Flynn Downes, for me he is the natural man for the job and hopefully that will be the case for the coming season.

Two notable absences were Marcus Stewart & Juan Larios, who you would have thought would have played some part after their long term injuries, also Adam Lallana who was included in the warm up and on the initial team sheet, but it was decided not to risk him.

As I have said we should not take too much from this victory, but it did show the depth we have in the squad, Charly Alcaraz was back and looked lively, again I would like to see him stay and used properly.

But the squad is not yet complete, we need a new keeper, we need a forward and a central midfielder.

A good start for pre season, but we should not be complacent, it is a foundation to build on.

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