Harwood-Bellis: We're more aggressive now

Saints played out a goalless draw with Spanish side Getafe in the final friendly of pre-season, with Will Smallbone and Adam Armstrong coming closest to scoring at St Mary’s.

Much like the midweek meeting with Lazio, it was another fiery affair, and Harwood-Bellis thinks Saints are becoming more streetwise as a team, and more united than ever as a group.

“We worked on being a bit more aggressive, getting contact on people – not in a dirty way, just in an aggressive way,” he said.

“Getting contact is going to be important this season with the calibre of players, to get close to people. It’s worked well today.

“Obviously it’s boiled over a few times – we’re not wanting that – it just happened to be that way. We stick up for our teammates.

“We spoke about it a lot last season and done it a lot towards the end of last season – the play-off final and the play-offs, snippets of it throughout the season, but it’s something we’ve spoken about a lot to get better at and it’s been a focus this pre-season. It’s paying off.”

For the defender, the Getafe draw was his first full 90 minutes of pre-season, and he can now finally look forward to a Premier League campaign after back-to-back promotions from the Championship with Burnley and Saints.

“It was enjoyable to get the first 90 in,” he added. “It was tough, it was quite hot out there, but it was enjoyable. We played our stuff, worked hard and now we’re ready for next week.

“It’s been a tough pre-season, they’ve had us running hard – it’s what you can expect going into the Premier League. All the lads look fit, mentally ready, physically ready.

“I’m double excited. I thought it was my time last summer to play in the Premier League, but it wasn’t to be. It couldn’t have worked out more perfect, so I’m buzzing to be playing in the Premier League under this manager and with this team, so I’m lucky.”