Martin impressed by players’ mentality
Southampton manager Russell Martin was impressed by his side’s mentality as they narrowly lost 3-2 to Premier League Bournemouth at St Mary’s Stadium in their latest pre-season test.
Saints got off to a shaky start as Dango Ouattara and Ryan Christie put the Cherries two goals to the good inside 20 minutes, before Shea Charles marked his first start with a goal moments before the break.
The customary pre-season rotation of players after the break swung momentum in the hosts’ favour, with Stuart Armstrong levelling the score on 65 minutes, only for David Brooks to punish a late mistake and leave Martin to reflect on a mixed performance.
“A really good test for us,” he said. “A really good game against Premier League opposition. We haven’t had an easy run in pre-season which I think will be really beneficial to us. Some really tough moments, especially early on in the game, and some really brilliant moments especially later on in the game, the second half. I think we’ll be so much better for the first half, the pain we had in that, the two goals we conceded.
“The three goals we conceded were really poor, they’re mistakes, but I love the mentality of the guys in the second half in particular to keep doing what we’re asking them to do, the reaction from the guys that stayed on the pitch to put into practice way more than we did in the first half what we work on, which is to play and move and play with intensity and there wasn’t enough of that in the first half because we got spooked by two really early goals and there was a lot of tension in the boys in the first 15-20 minutes.
“It was the first time back here for all of us, first time here for us and first time back here for the players after last season and the disappointment of that, so we expected a bit of that, probably not as much as we got, but I have to say they were great in the second half, the crowd really stuck with it and hopefully we gave them enough moments to look forward to, and I'm really looking forward to getting this place rocking and rolling and for us to really learn from tonight and we’ll be better for tonight and that’s the point of pre-season.”
Experiencing St Mary’s for the first time, the Saints boss also reflected on his first matchday in SO14.
“We’re really enjoying being here and it feels like we’ve been here a long time already. First time we’ve been here at St Mary’s, so really excited about what we can build together here this season.
Everyone, the staff, the players, the supporters, and we’re really excited about it and tonight makes us even more excited, especially some of the stuff we played in the second half and it’s up to us to make sure everyone feels proud of what they’re doing and believes in what they’re doing and I really hope and think we can achieve that.”
