Preston North End 1-3 Southampton: Saints victorious in second pre-season friendly

Southampton were 3-1 victors over Preston North End in their second pre-season friendly of 2019/20 on Saturday afternoon.

A bizarre goal from Danny Ings opened the scoring, but Preston fought back to equalise through a curling effort from Billy Bodin.

Ings grabbed his and Saints’ second shortly before half-time before young full-back Jake Vokins completed the scoring with eight minutes remaining.

The main thing that Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl had to consider ahead of this game was his side’s upcoming schedule.

This coming Tuesday will see a Saints side in China to take on Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F. A separate group will also travel to Ireland ahead of next weekend for another training camp closer to home.

Two further friendlies will then remain, with a clash against Feyenoord in the Netherlands next Sunday and a meeting with 1.FC Koln at St Mary’s on Saturday 3rd August.

As it was, Hasenhuttl’s chosen side at Deepdale started the afternoon brightly. A chance for Ryan Bertrand and a disallowed goal from Shane Long came before they took the lead after 11 minutes.

Preston goalkeeper Connor Ripley was charged down by Danny Ings as he tried to clear down field, and the ball flew off the Saints striker and back into the net.

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However, the hosts were soon back level at 1-1 when winger Billy Bodin curled into the far corner with great precision.

A good chance for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg went begging but it was Saints who eventually got back in front on the verge of half-time.

Ryan Bertrand whipped a good cross into the area and Ings was on hand to finish in a slightly more orthodox fashion than with his opener.

As Hasenhuttl built up the workload for some of his key players, substitutions were made later than last weekend against SCR Altach.

In a rather uneventful first 15 minutes of the second-half, Long, Ings, Obafemi and Hojbjerg were all replaced by Stuart Armstrong, Josh Sims, Harrison Reed and Nathan Redmond.

Then shortly after, Bertrand and Bednarek were replaced by youngsters Jake Vokins and Christoph Klarer.

Both academy talents had played 45 minutes against Altach last Sunday and Vokins would net the all important third for Saints as this match headed into its final stages.

Nathan Redmond cut the ball back to the full-back who tapped home after making his way into a central position in the area.

It was a great moment for the 19-year-old and Saints saw out the win comfortably from that moment. They now face Guangzhou R&F on Tuesday afternoon.

Preston North End team

Connor Ripley, Jordan Storey, Tom Clarke (Joe Rafferty 79), Ben Davies, Andrew Hughes, Ben Pearson, Alan Browne, Daniel Johnson, Billy Bodin (Graham Burke 79), Tom Barkhuizen (Louis Moult 72), Sean Maguire

Saints team

Angus Gunn, Cedric Soares, Jack Stephens, Wesley Hoedt, Jan Bednarek (Christoph Klarer 72), Ryan Bertrand (Jake Vokins 72), Will Smallbone, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Harrison Reed 60), Danny Ings (Nathan Redmond 60), Michael Obafemi (Josh Sims 60), Shane Long (Stuart Armstrong 60)