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.

Photo: Action Images

JoeEgg added 09:39 - Jul 21 Oh dear - I think you will find that Marcus Stewart could be missing for a long long time!
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Block8 added 09:59 - Jul 21 Great to see some of the kids getting a run out & definately not looking out of place.
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underweststand added 16:33 - Jul 21 Fun for players and fans, and agree that Diblings defence-splitting pass was a joy to watch. Difficult to judge how good we were, considering the huge gap between the two sides. Have noted that some people are " building molehills" about the absent players but there can be many reasons for that, but it was a good chance to see the youngsters get game time - even against a National League outfit. Note To Joe Egg...are you worried that ROSS Stewart might still be injured ..or ?

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Flamingbankers added 19:02 - Jul 21 Nice to see Saints playing some direct football.
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