Saints Clean Up With Ajax
Saints defeated Dutch side Ajax today in a behind the scenes friendly game at Staplewood aimed at giving those not away on International duty match practice.
Saints put out a side with a mix of senior players and youth to take on Ajax behind closed doors today, Oriol Romeu, Steven Caulker, Harrison Reed, Cuco Martina & Harrison Reed all featured, whilst the Amsterdam side fielded a more youthful XI
The watching Ronald Koeman saw Juanmi fouled on the edge of the box and Armani Little giving Saints the lead in the sixth minute from the resulting free kick with a great curling strike.
Juanmi himself doubled the lead on 15 minutes after being set up by Ryan Seager and 4 minutes later it was 3-0 when Cuco Martina headed home from an Armanoi Little cross.
Saints had several other chances to extend the lead before they did on 40 minutes when Little again crossed and Jake Hesketh fired home.
Given that the scoreline was not extended in the second half you would have though that perhaps Saints changed their side en masse at the break, this was not the case though with only one substitution being made at half time and a second with 20 minutes to go.
These were the only changes and it was credit to Ajax who got their act together and made it hard for Saints to break them down.
All in all a good workout for both the experienced and the youngsters and Ronald Koeman would have been given some food for thought going forward.
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