Report: Youngsters impress in winning pre-season opener

In the third instalment of a now-annual tradition, Saints visited their non-league neighbours for the opening friendly ahead of their 2026/27 campaign.

Tonda Eckert opted for two separate line-ups in each half, with summer signing Lewis Dobbin the most notable starter in the first 45 minutes; George Long, now a permanent Saints player, began in goal, whilst Mads Roerslev made his first start in eight months after recovering from a long term injury.

The hosts opened the scoring in front of a capacity crowd, as Nick Akoto bundled the ball in after just 14 minutes against the run of play.

However, Saints were in charge for the vast majority of the contest, and turned things around in the first half through Lewis Dobbin's first goal since his arrival and a well-taken header by Nick Oyekunle.

In the second half, fellow Academy prospect Romeo Akachukwu added his name to the scoresheet to seal a 3-1 win with valuable minutes in the legs for 23 players over the course of the evening.

Saints' starters in their pre-season opener. (Photos: Matt Watson)

Saints dominated the lion's share of possession at the Silverlake Stadium in their first minutes of pre-season, with the first opportunities in front of goal falling to Nathan Wood and Flynn Downes from corner routines.

Although the first half started fairly routinely, a minor blip in Eckert's plans saw Caspar Jander forced off in the early stages as a precaution after the midfielder went down.

The hosts then opened the scoring through one of their own summer signings, Nick Akoto, who bundled the ball home from a corner that wasn't fully cleared by the Saints defence.

Any early pre-season rustiness was shook off relatively soon after, though, as Saints returned to the ascendency and eventually levelled the scores with their first goal of evening.

Tom Fellows, who was proving to be a tricky customer on the right wing for the Eastleigh defence, was picked out by an excellent switch of play from Academy midfielder Joe O'Brien-Whitmarsh.

Saints' winger beat his man with a dart of pace to the byline and looped a cross to the back post where Scienza arrived to head the ball goalwards - Eastleigh appeared to clear the effort off the line, but new man Dobbin lashed home the rebound to make sure.

If the scorer of the first was up for debate, Saints' second of the evening, which arrived just four minutes later, was up in no doubt as the lead changed hands in emphatic style.

Fellows was again the architect with a right wing cross, which this time was stood up into the six yard box for youngster Oyekunle to power home a flying header from close range.

Nick Oyekunle celebrates his goal.

A slender lead at the break, but a fairly untroubled performance, was enough for the first half team as Saints returned for the second period with 10 changes for a pre-planned fresh line-up.

Another Academy product, Romeo Akachukwu, was keen to impress after earning another opportunity around the first team, and he fashioned the first shooting chance of the second half when he cut inside from the left wing and fired a goal-bound effort that was well-saved by Eastleigh's Nick Townsend.

It was one-way traffic for the red of the contest at the Silverlake Stadium and Ryan Manning was next to try his luck from a customary free-kick, but the full-back was merely warming up his shooting boots ahead of the new campaign as his attempt was blocked by the defensive wall.

Cameron Archer also came close after a jinking run through the home defence, but his eventual shot was kept out by Townsend's feet.

The third and final goal of the game did eventually arrive, and it was Akachukwu who struck well to extend the lead further.

After more joy on the right wing, this time through Sam Edozie, an eventual cut-back cross bypassed Damion Downs and reached the Akachukwu at the far post who finished with a composed, low effort that nestled into the bottom corner.

With that, Saints' pre-season opener was wrapped up with a fairly comfortable victory, as all eyes turn to another week of work before a testing pre-season training camp in Germany with three games in nine days to pick up the preparations ahead of the 2026/27 season.

Eastleigh: Townsend, Drake, Sidwell, Bakare, Eweka (Pierre 10'), Dickov, Blair, Trialist, Akoto, Ghandour, Cousins (c).

Subs not used: Bridi, Colwill, Ihnatenko, Olajide, Scambler, Trialist B, Kelly, McFarlane, Stone, Killick, Underhill.

Goals: Akoto (14').

Southampton first half: Long, Roerslev (Kayi Sanda 31'), Wood, Stephens (c), Welington, Downes, Jander (O'Brien-Whitmarsh 9'), Fellows, Dobbin, Scienza, Oyekunle.

Southampton second half: Long, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, (c), Quarshie, Manning, Matsuki, Bragg, Edozie, Archer, Akachukwu, Downs.

Subs not used: Jeffries.

Goals: Dobbin (25'), Oyekunle (29'), Akachukwu (78')

Attendance: TBC.

Referee: Harry Wager.