Report: Saints cruise to victory in pre-season opener
Adam Armstrong picked up where he left off with two first-half goals as Southampton eased to a 7-1 victory in their pre-season opener at Eastleigh.
Armstrong scored twice in the opening 17 minutes and might even have had more in that time, as Saints set a breathless tempo early on.
Will Smallbone’s calm finish gave Saints a 3-0 half-time lead, before the usual flurry of substitutions.
Sékou Mara made it four from the penalty spot before Scott Quigley pulled a goal back, but Saints finished strongly with further goals from Ryan Manning and Charly Alcaraz either side of a debut strike from Yukinari Sugawara.
Russell Martin gave game time to 22 players over the course of the 90 minutes, with new faces Ronnie Edwards and Charlie Taylor both included from the start, while Sugawara and Nathan Wood arrived after the break.
Saints were sharp out of the blocks as Armstrong twice went close to celebrating his new contract with a goal inside the first five minutes.
Some slick wing play from Samuel Edozie set up the first chance, which Armstrong curled just an inch past the far post from 15 yards, before the striker was thwarted by Joe McDonnell in the Eastleigh goal.
But he would not have long to wait, as Armstrong kept coming back for more and was rewarded just seven minutes into the game, as Saints worked the ball wide to Joe Aribo on the left, whose low cross was dispatched at the near post by the razor-sharp marksman.
Adam Armstrong gets across his man to tuck home the opener
There were two chances for Tyler Dibling inside the first ten minutes too, with one blocked and one fired into the side-netting for a Saints side who were slicing through their National League hosts at will.
Dibling turned provider for Armstrong’s second with a piercing pass, dissecting the defence for the man of the moment to run through and double his tally early on.
Talented teenager Dibling set up another chance soon after, this time for 18-year-old Will Merry, but the winger scuffed his shot across goal. There were also first-half appearances for fellow youngsters Sam Amo-Ameyaw and Jay Robinson from the bench.
Armstrong was hat-trick hunting before the interval, and did force another save from McDonnell from Aribo’s clever first-time pass.
Saints were in behind the Eastleigh backline again when Smallbone got in on the act, racing on to Flynn Downes’s ball out from the back and keeping his cool with an assured finish.
The visitors had been coasting throughout, but Alex McCarthy was called upon when the ball ricocheted back into the path of Jake Taylor in the box, as the Spitfires captain was denied by the keeper at his near post.
Martin made ten changes at half time, handing further debuts to Sugawara and Wood, as only first-half substitute Amo-Ameyaw stayed on the field.
The lively winger won the penalty from which Sékou Mara coolly converted Saints’ fourth, as Amo-Ameyaw burst between two defenders and was sent crashing to earth by Deji Sotona, inviting Mara to send McDonnell the wrong way.
Ronnie Edwards was one of four new summer signings to feature
The home crowd did have something to cheer when Quigley steered home a deep free-kick with a tidy finish at the far post, but Saints remained firmly in control.
Sugawara made his first goal contribution of the night from one of many forays down the right, as the Japanese summer signing saw his low cross reach Manning at the far post, who confidently swept home Saints’ fifth.
The impressive Dibling stung the palms of McDonnell as Saints kept pushing for more, but it was Sugawara who drilled in number six with a clean strike into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
Alcaraz added a seventh after some quick feet from bright spark Amo-Ameyaw, as the Argentinian steered a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to complete the rout.
Eastleigh: McDonnell (Scott 75); Fernandez (Trialist B 45), Francilette (Edmondson 75), Panter (Colvin 75); Brindley (Dotse 75), Taylor (c) (Waruih 45), Nwabuokei (Underhill 66), Trialist A (Sotona 45); Maguire (Quigley 45), McCallum (Fox 75), Shade (Rogers 66).
Goal: Quigley (57’).
Saints (first half): McCarthy; Bree, Edwards (Amo-Ameyaw 18), Taylor; Dibling (Robinson 25), Smallbone, Downes (c), Aribo; Merry, Armstrong, Edozie.
Saints (second half): Lis; Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Manning; Dibling, Charles, Alcaraz; Amo-Ameyaw, Mara, Robinson.
Goals: Armstrong (7’, 17’), Smallbone (39’), Mara (50’ pen), Manning (71’), Sugawara (78’), Alcaraz (83’).
