Tribal Football

Martin delighted as Southampton defeat Montpellier

Martin delighted as Southampton defeat Montpellier
Martin delighted as Southampton defeat Montpellier
Martin delighted as Southampton defeat MontpellierProfimedia
Southampton boss Russell Martin was delighted with their preseason friendly win against Montpellier today.

Saints won 3-1 via goals from Kamaldeen Sulemana, Tyler Dibling and Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

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“It’s been perfect – the camp has been great, we’ve avoided injury, and I’ve really enjoyed being around the guys and the feeling they have together,” Martin told the club's website. “It’s been a really successful week and we have to keep building on it.

“I said to them (the players) last night it’s really important to have a good feeling at the end of the week – not to come here today and be an excuse, because we played under real fatigue today, some brilliant stuff under real fatigue.

“We got better as the game went on. In the first half we should’ve scored five goals but we could’ve conceded four, because there was a casual attitude, but that’s down to tiredness and fatigue, nothing else, because the intention was brilliant.

“That got better, we spoke about it at half time, but it’s a really nice way for everyone to end the week. It was a competitive game, it was aggressive, a step up in opposition, and I think the guys coped with it really, really well.

“We are winning whilst getting better, progressing and under big fatigue, so it’s a nice habit – the boys want to win. They want to win in training, they want to win in pre-season.

“How we do anything is how we do everything, and I was a bit annoyed at half time about the attitude in both boxes – ‘don’t worry about it, it’s pre-season’ but we can’t have that, it’s not separate.

“We need to attack everything – training, gym, pre-season friendly – in the same way we will have to at St James’ Park, so it’s been really good, I’m really pleased with the guys.”