Still pleased with "physical aspects" of Gillingham encounters
Will Still was pleased to see so many of his players get 60 minutes on the pitch as Southampton hosted Gillingham in a pair of behind-closed-doors friendlies at Staplewood.
Two separate hour-long matches were played, giving Still the opportunity to get significant game time into a number of first-team players, with 24 Saints involved in all.
A solitary Cameron Archer goal, his second of pre-season, won the first game, before Saints secured a 3-1 victory in the second encounter thanks to goals from Ross Stewart, Tyler Dibling and Kuryu Matsuki.
“Very positive. I think we can see there's improvement, there's progression, there's a lot of positive things to take,” Still reflected.
“Obviously still details and things that we need to work on and improve on, but again, at this early stage and early games in pre-season, you focus on the physical aspects and a lot of the boys got 60 [minutes] and the boys who came back in late last week or early this week got 45 or 30.
“Step by step we're building everyone up and getting players up to where we need them and where we want them. As long as we keep doing the basics right, keep winning games and get into the habit of winning games, we're moving in the right direction.
“You can see step by step where we want to go, how we want to attack space, how we want to get in behind, but it's a work in progress.
“Like I said the other day, it's step by step. Work on the basics and then build it up and build it up, and that's what we're doing. We're getting there. We'll be ready when we need to be ready, but it's positive.”
Despite being only Saints’ second instalment of pre-season, the first game in particular was played in a very competitive spirit, including a handful of heavy challenges from both sides.
“It’s brilliant,” Still smiled. “I said in the meeting before that we know the opposition gaffer, we know the style of teams and style of play that he likes, so we knew there was a physical battle to be had, and we competed, which is important at this stage.
“As soon as it gets competitive, that's what we want. The better teams we play the more competitive it will become, so it is definitely good.”
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