Martin touched by support of Saints fans
Ahead of his first game at St Mary's as Southampton manager, Russell Martin spoke of his excitement and also how touched he and his staff have been at the reception they have received from the club's supporters.
Martin will be on the touchline tonight as Saints host Bournemouth in their penultimate friendly of pre-season, a few days on from beating Reading 4-2 in the final away fixture of the summer.
For the boss, it will be his first taste of managing the side at St Mary's, and it is a night he is relishing the prospect of.
"We're really excited, I'm really excited about it," he said. "The reception on Saturday was amazing, it really touched us, it was really good, and I hope they saw enough – the people who came and the people who maybe watched it on the stream – to make them feel excited about what's to come and about how their team's going to look.
"The supporters, as I've said so many times already, are the most important people at the club. It's my job as the manager, our job as the coaching staff and as a team of players and staff to give them a team they connect with and they feel energised about and they feel happy to go and watch and support.
"That's already started, having played in front of a few of them at Göztepe, then quite a few of them on Saturday and hopefully a few more against Bournemouth and then Alkmaar. Then we just need to be ready for the first game. I think we've sold out the away end already at Sheffield Wednesday, which is amazing. It's a Friday night on Sky and it would be really easy not to go, so I hope everyone's feeling excited and I hope that we give them plenty to be excited about."
Having faced Benfica, Göztepe and Reading so far this summer, Saints will now finish their preparations with home games against Bournemouth and Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.
Looking ahead to tonight's contest, Martin said: "We're playing a Premier League team, it will be a good test for us, and we just want another step up from us really as a group.
"There will be some changes in the personnel that played from Saturday, because everyone needs to get minutes ahead of another game this Saturday also and then obviously the first game against Sheffield Wednesday, so still looking for what we need physically to make sure everyone is in the right condition, but we're looking for an improvement tactically.
"We were so pleased with Saturday, having watched it back a couple of times and been through it with the players individually and as a group, we were really pleased with so much of it and some stuff we really need to iron out before the first game, which is to be expected, but really excited about this challenge as well and seeing what the players can be capable of in front of a home crowd."
Martin added: "The energy has just been building over the last three or four weeks really, the players are really getting to grips with what we want and really coming to life with each other and us as a coaching staff, which has been really nice and we're going to need to continue to grow that and now it's about building that connection and energy with the supporters as well."
Watch tonight's match
Can't make the match? Click here to find out how you can stream tonight's game against Bournemouth.
