Saints christened the much maligned new home kit with a 2-1 win against UE Llagostera.

In truth this was always going to be a gentle start for Saints, when you play your opening game of pre season its rare that you put out anything other than a team that sees multiple changes and/or substitutions in the case of this game it was a tale of two halves as Saints mixed and matched, putting out a completely differrent side for the second half from the first apart from Jay Rodriguez who stayed on for 68 minutes before being substituted for Jamie Ward Prowse who hmself had played the first half, literally everyone in the squad got a game, apart from Mayuka & Hooiveld who had knocks, as well as Yoshida & Ramirez who have been on a summer International duty, Artur Boruc didnt feature with the two keepers being used Davis & Gazzaniga.

With the opposition being roughly conference south standard, it was a game of blowing off the cobwebs, Saints leading at half time after J Rod capitalised on a mistake, outpaced a defender and slammed the ball home.

After the wholesale changes from both sides at half time it was the Spaniards who scored the next goal just after the hour, a header from a corner, but this disnt last long and it was Rodriguez again who hit what turned out to be the winner as he turned home from a tight angle after the keeper had parried a shot from Adam Lallana.

All in all a good work out for Saints, not a lot can be taken out of the game in terms of team selection or result, it has to be taken for what it was, a good workout with a little bit more competitiveness than you would get from a training game, Saints were good value for their win however and debuts from Wanyama and Lovren would of course be good as it gave them their first opportunity to slot in with their new team mates in a match enviroment and that perhaps sums up what this game was all about.       

Photo: Action Images

Toussaint added 11:12 - Jul 18 And might i add the most beautiful Saint`s player on display last night,that has yet to make his full pro debut,but already has a gloss mag following of ladies.. http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/07/soccer-player-straight-out-of-a-fairy-tale.html?
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schatfield added 16:21 - Jul 18 please use spell-check in these articles Nick, because they are really enjoyable to read aside from the spelling
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ElSanto added 16:38 - Jul 18 FFS, everyone stop being little bitches about spelling and grammar.
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SaintNick added 16:46 - Jul 18 Actually you have a point, there is something up with my PC and it seems to be missing out the odd letter or two
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