Southampton struggled to a 1-1 draw against Spanish Second Division side CD Castellon, but it could have been much worse but for Gavin Bazunu, who is yet to concede a goal in his 3 pre season outings so far.
Saints pre season has not exactly took off yet, they have yet to play any teams of equal standing so far, the build up starting with non league Eastleigh, stepping up to League two Gillingham before taking on Sport Republic sister club Valenciennes and then a last minute squeeze into the schedule CD Castellon on Wednesday.
The games as you would expect from pre season friendlies where a different team is fielded in each half have been scrappy and so far no one has truly stood out.
But goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu who has returned firstly from almost a year out through injury and then a short loan spell with Belgian side Standard Liege is perhaps one player who has put in solid performances in each of his 3 appearances.
Indeed on Wednesday against Castellon he produced two quality saves to keep Saints 1-0 in front at half time.
Bazunu has his critics in the Saints supporter base, although it is true that his first season was a little bit traumatic, he could perhaps cite the fact that he was a young keeper thrown into the Premier League behind a defence that was chaotic and it did him no favours.
But in his second season he did not really get the credit he deserved from some supporters for his part in our promotion run.
Those who called him the worst goalkeeper in the Championship and there were some, did not ponder the question of how did we manage a 23 game unbeaten run in the League with the worst keeper in the division, especially since most of those who did criticise him, would also claim Ryan Manning was the worst left back.
During that 23 game run, Saints were the tightest defence during that period.
Now Bazunu is back from injury and is a little bit older and a little bit more experienced and is ready to step up to the plate again.
But his future is up in the air at the moment, not because of his form, but because as it stands he is number 2 to Arron Ramsdale and although Ramsdale himself as you would expect sees his future in the Premier League for the coming season, that is out of not just his hands, but Southampton FC's, if no one comes in for Ramsdale with a decent offer then he could find himself staying at St Mary's and that is bad news for Gavin Bazunu.
Speaking to The Daily Echo after the Castellon game, Bazunu had this to say.
"I want to be here, definitely. I'm not sure how much of it's going to be in my hands, but I'm ready to play, and I'm hoping to play here.
"I think at the moment for all of us [goalkeepers], it's just about preparing as best as we can to see what happens in the coming three or four weeks.
"All we can do is take these opportunities we get to play and just show what we can do, really. It's nice to be back out there getting minutes again.
"I haven't had much of a test in the last couple of friendly games, so to get a few shots to save in this game was very nice.
"For me, it was all about, over the summer, getting over my knee injury, getting back fit and getting a good pre-season under my belt.
"To be able to start from the very start with the lads and to be able to get minutes in the games and train every day is really important."
So this is an issue that could probably go right up to the wire and if on the 9th August Arron Ramsdale is still at the club, then Will Still has a conundrum, does he put in his best keeper against Wrexham which is undoubtably Arron Ramsdale or does he play Bazunu as he will be the most likely keeper for the rest of the season, if Ramsdale leaves in the final week of the transfer window, which is the most likely outcome.
If Ramsdale does leave then I am perfectly happy for Gavin Bazunu to be between the sticks for the coming year, I suspect this will prove a lot of comments running down the keeper, but I am looking at the bigger picture, I am not judging him on his first season at the club when he was thrown to the Wolves and Liverpool & Arsenal too for that matter, it would not have mattered who was goalkeeper in that season given the calamitous defending, just as in the season just gone, despite having a proven Premier League keeper in goal, he was frequently exposed by poor defending and we had the worst defence in the league.
So it is good to see that Bazunu has been solid in pre season, yes of course it is not against great opposition, but for goalkeepers it is all about confidence and Bazunu is starting to rebuild his again after spending the best part of the last 15 months sidelined.