Martin: We’ll learn a lot from it

Facing the French outfit midway through a week-long training camp in Girona, an own goal following good work from Tyler Dibling saw the score tied 1-1 at the break.

A quickfire brace after the restart from Sam Amo-Ameyaw and Sékou Mara gave Saints a cushion, with a late consolation for Albert Riera’s side rounding off the scoring.

“I’m not overly fused about the result right now, but I think it was a really good exercise for us; tough,” Martin began.

“Eleven o’clock kick off, the heat; really tough for the guys, so physically very good. We got through it without an injury which is a positive and they’ve worked hard.

“As a conditioning and training session it was brilliant, we’ll learn a lot from it, some good stuff that I liked, a lot of stuff we need to really work on but it’s a training exercise and for that reason it’s been positive.”

Facing further French opposition in Montpellier at the same venue on Saturday, the Saints boss is targeting further progression in both performance and physical fitness.

“We’ll be better for today for sure, but it’ll be in the heat again which will be difficult for the guys, but they have to be grateful then physically when they get through it.

“We have a few guys sitting in the stand today that’ll be involved at the weekend which will be nice for us and will strengthen us for sure and it’ll be a step up for us again. Today was progression from Eastleigh and then we look for some more progression again on Saturday.

“Not being disrespectful about any team we face in pre-season, but it’s about what we do. I’m aware of what they [Montpellier] did last season, but I don’t know how they look right now. But it’ll be a step up from today, I think, which will be great for us.”

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