Saints have got their first win of the pre season campaign as they finished up a successful training camp in France by beating St Etienne.

Saints rounded off their week in France with a rousing 3-0 win over French side St Etienne with Mauricio Pellegrino revealing a new tactical formation playing Charlie Austin in a deeper lying role behind Manolo Gabbiadini.

Many Saints fans were wondering how Pellegrino would prefer his attack, would it be the fox in the box speedy style of Gabbiadini or the more robust Charlie Austin and how could he fit them both in, Saturday's game gave the answer.

The first half though was fairly quiet although Gabbiadini should really have given Saints the lead ten minutes before the break sliding in on a misplaced pass but could not squeeze the ball in and going sightly wide, the Italian also had another couple of efforts before the break as Saint started to find their feet.

The new Saints boss opted to keep his starting line up intact for the bulk of the game only making one change at half time and that in goal with Forster stepping down for Taylor.

The second half saw the French side hit a post early doors and then a change or two paid dividends with Matt Targett on for Ryan Bertrand creating two goals in quick succession, the first saw anolo Gabbiadini give Saints the lead with a header and then the second saw Targett get forward and cut it back for James Ward Prowse to side foot home from ten yards out.

That put the game firmly in Saints control with 25 minutes remaining and the manager made six changes in that time to make sure that his squad all got a good run out, the icing on the cake came four minutes from time when Yoshida headed home a JWP corner from six yards out.

Mauricio Pellegrino will be happy with this run out, he will have got a good look at most of his players and will be starting to find out about their strengths and limitations.

However so far the tests have not been anything near what Saints will face in the Premier League and it will be the home friendlies against Augsburg and Sevilla in the next fortnight that will provide the real insight as to where we need to strengthen.

Saints: Forster (Taylor 45), Pied (Jones 80), Stephens (Bednarek 80), Yoshida, Bertrand (Targett 57), Davis (Clasie 80), Romeu (Hojbjerg 74), Tadic (Gallagher 85), Austin (Ward-Prowse 59), Boufal (McQueen 57), Gabbiadini (Long 74).

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 10:10 - Jul 30 It may be early but did I just read 'robust Charlie Austin'? Good work out for the lads.
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aceofthebase added 10:12 - Jul 30 For 60 minutes saints looked leaderless and clueless. they struggled to get possession of the ball and even more to hold onto it. There appeared no pattern or method to their play and provided no threat in attack. The appearance of Targett changed things and the final thirty minutes looked promising but this was not the 'A' team. A very worrying pre season performance that was echoed in the miserable dour post match managers interview that made Puel look like a charmer

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TeamCortese added 10:14 - Jul 30 I think the big highlight was obviously the workout against slightly better opposition (although I thought Brentford were pretty solid for a Championship team). I'm also very positive about Charlie Austin's work-rate. He seems to be up for it!
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Flipo added 23:17 - Aug 13 Great match in great atmosphere with great victory.
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