Martin reflects on pre-season progress
With pre-season concluding with a 0-0 draw at home to Getafe, manager Russell Martin praised his side’s application in preparation for their upcoming Premier League campaign.
Heading to Newcastle for the curtain raiser next weekend, a strong-looking Saints side drew a stalemate against La Liga opposition at St Mary’s, leaving Martin to look back on the off-season as a whole.
“Yeah, I enjoyed lots of it,” he began. “I would’ve liked to have scored a goal or two, I think we created the chances to do that. But we look good physically and we played some brilliant football at times.
“Lots to work on still as well. I'm really, really pleased with the lads the way they’ve worked for the last five or six weeks. It's been really, really outstanding and credit to them as a group. And now we have a week to prepare for the first game and pre-season is done.
“It gets to that point in pre-season where everyone just wants it over and you get closer to the season and now it is done and they've conducted themselves brilliantly. Now they just have to carry that into the league. I said to them in the dressing room, we just need to stay brave and be ourselves, that’s the challenge all the time. And yeah, we'll have a lot of fun.”
Looking to the week ahead, the Saints boss explained the approach over the coming seven days.
“We work really hard and we get ready. And we get excited. And we go to Newcastle and try and be the team we want to be. Well, we'll be the team we want to be, hopefully.”
