It was good to see some of the youngsters tonight but thank goodness we were playing Shrewsbury. We didn’t carve out too many chances but those we did we really should have done better with. Still, we have avoided a potential banana skin.

2

We did what we had to do with no dramas. A few players got a rest, a few academy prospects got a run out and valuable experience. The team controlled the game without really breaking a sweat. Job done.

1

No banana skin, good run out for kids, they mostly played well but each extra touch made me increasinly scared for saints of a future without Ings!

2

Saints dominated most of the match apart for a few breaks and a few half chances. The first half was fairly encouraging considering the cobbled-together team. The second half was frankly a bore fest with Saints pinging the ball from side to side without any penetrative balls through the Shrews midfield or defence. Stephens tried the Vestergaard long ball and this worked once, after 19 minutes, in about 20 efforts but it did bring the goal that was well controlled by young Watts (below the shoulder) and was well taken by N'Lundulu - sensibly placing his shot across the goalie. Valery looked poor at first but gradually grew into the game and overall had a good performance. Watts, my MOTM, was a skilful livewire and for a first match looks an exciting prospect - I hope he keeps a place on the bench on Saturday. Lastly , I was also pleased with the performance of Fraser Forster charging out quickly to clobber the ball whenever necessary and made one good save - getting down quickly, smothering the ball and keeping it close to his chest. We will need a stronger, more adept team to face Arsenal though.

0