Southampton: Experienced Saints Under-23s play Wycombe at St Mary’s

Southampton’s Under-23s lost 1-0 to Wycombe Wanderers’ senior team on Friday in what was the first 2020/21 pre-season action played at St Mary’s.

The 90 minute fixture was decided by a single goal from Wycombe’s Alex Samuel just before the hour but the report via southamptonfc.com shows that it was an encouraging game for many Saints players hoping to move up to first-team level this season.

Some players that played have already had a taste of senior action but will be looking to push into a squad role for the upcoming campaign.

Callum Slattery forced a good save from Wycombe goalkeeper David Stockdale with a free kick during the friendly and has arrived back in England after a spell on loan with De Graafschap in the Netherlands.

In all, he made five appearances for his temporary side before the 2019/20 season was curtailed due to the Coronavirus.

Slattery is now 21 and still has a huge amount of time ahead of him but he will want to get back into Ralph Hasenhuttl’s plans soon.

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Josh Sims was also involved on Friday after spending time with New York Red Bulls in the MLS – he was sent on loan to a “Red Bull” team by Hasenhuttl to experience ways of working that are similar to him.

After making a few appearances for Saints back in the 2018/19 campaign, Sims will be hoping for a chance to impress again this time around.

A big 2019/20 season came for Alfie Jones and Tom O’Connor with both getting hugely valuable minutes under their belts whilst at Gillingham. Both played against Wycombe and it remains to be seen what will happen for them in terms of first-team football this year.

Other players mentioned in Saints’ official match report are Will Ferry, Dan N’Lundulu, Jake Hesketh – who broke through into the Saints senior side all the way back in 2014/15 – Caleb Watts, Kazeem Olaigbe, Jayden Smith and Ramello Mitchell.

After seeing the likes of Will Smallbone and Jake Vokins getting first-team minutes, all of these players will be wanting to follow in their footsteps.