Southampton signing Ross Stewart has finally made his debut for the club, two months after signing from Sunderland and it was his old club whom he faced at Staplewood in his first outing of any kind in a Saints shirt.

The number 7 has often proved pivotal for great Saints goalscorer's, it was the number Matt Le Tissier wore for most of his career and the mantle was carried on when Rickie Lambert took the number in 2009 upon joining the club from Bristol Rovers.

This season it is Joe Aribo with the number, however it is perhaps a good omen for the start of Ross Stewart's career that he has scored on his debut at any level for Saints, notching his first goal in the 7th minute of the U21 game against his old club at Staplewood.

Stewart has the squad number of 14 when he finally makes his first team debut and that will hopefully signify his contributions will add up to the sum total of both of his two illustrious number 7 predecessors.

His appearance today signifies that he is unlikely to play any part in tomorrow's game at Millwall, despite the fact that he came off at half time after getting 45 minutes under his belt, but if he has had no adverse reactions to his first game, then it is likely he will be on the bench at home to West Bromwich Albion next weekend.

Sadly though it would not be a good day for the Southampton U21 team, despite leading 1-0 at the break, they conceded a goal in the 66th minute to let the visitors back into the game and then with 8 minutes left on the clock Bragg turned a Sunderland corner into his own net to give the visitors the lead, which they comfortably held on to even though there were 7 minutes of injury time added.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 18:56 - Nov 3 A good start after a long injury. 45 minutes with a lower standard of football ( U21) and a well-taken chance to score his first goal. I don't expect to see him play any 90 minute games for at least a month or more, but he will see some action because we have 10 games in 37 days ...between the 25th November and January 1st. With that intensity of activity we can hope that he and the rest of the squad can make it through without any major injury problems.

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Ali_Diarea added 18:18 - Nov 4 We should of retired the number 7 shirt when MLT hung up his boots
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codge added 18:32 - Nov 4 Don’t forget Terry Paine although not prolific but got many an important goal especially the one that got us promotion the night we beat Layton Orient,l was at the game with my wife who was expecting our first baby.
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