B Team Preview: Villa vs Saints
Southampton’s B team are back in action on Friday afternoon, travelling to Aston Villa in Premier League 2.
Aston Villa vs Saints
Premier League 2
Bodymoor Heath Training Ground
Friday 11th March, 2pm GMT
It’s been 11 days since Dave Horseman’s side last faced competitive action; a 4-2 win over Nottingham Forest in front of over 1,200 fans at St Mary’s.
Goals from Jayden Smith, Kazeem Olaigbe and a Luke Pearce double secured the impressive result, which took Saints up to fifth in the standings.
Aston Villa sit just a point below Saints in seventh after a close fought defeat at league leaders Fulham last-time-out.
Brad Young gave visiting Villa the lead, only for Luke Harris and Sonny Hilton to turn the game on its head.
A win for Saints could see them rise to as high as second if other results go their way, whilst Aston Villa could leapfrog their visitors with three points and may finish the day in joint-third.
The two sides last came to blows at the end of October at Staplewood Campus, where a youthful Villa side ran into a rejuvenated and confident Saints.
The scoring started on 24 minutes, Nathan Tella making the most out of his time with the B team set-up with a goal from the spot to kick things off.
Sil Swinkels’s own goal then added Saints a second, before Thierry Small made it three in first-half stoppage time.
Lewis Payne rounded off the scores on the hour, on what was a satisfying afternoon at the training ground.
“We’re really looking forward to this next game,” said Horseman. “We’ve been training and playing really well.
“We’ve lost only one in the last five so we’re on really good form. We’ve had time to get a couple in the gym and work on a couple of technical bits.
“This next game against Villa, who are a very good, talented team, will be tough but we’ll go in very confident.”
