Southampton won 1-0 at Braunschweig on the 24th July. The scorer was a player many had stopped counting on.
Damion Downs got the only goal just before half time. He took Lewis Dobbin's pass, then rounded the keeper and finished.
Downs is the £7m striker Southampton signed from Cologne last summer. His FotMob profile shows a first season without a league goal, and a loan to Hamburger SV in January brought no change.
A strong year in Germany's lower tier had earned him the move. The goals dried up once he reached England.
After the season he had just endured, the goal read as more than a friendly footnote. It hinted at why the club spent the money at all.
A slow burn at The Dell
Southampton have watched patience pay off before. Rewind to July 1998, when a raw 20-year-old walked into The Dell.
James Beattie arrived from Blackburn Rovers for about £1m. He was part of the deal that sent Kevin Davies the other way for £7m.
Beattie had not scored once in his few Blackburn games. His first year at The Dell was modest too, with five goals, though it still won him the club's Player of the Season award.
Despite an injury-hit second season, Southampton remained patient, and in 2002/03 Beattie scored 23 league goals, the highest total by any Englishman that season.
His goals took Southampton to the 2003 FA Cup final, the club's first in 27 years. For a striker written off two years earlier, that was some turnaround.
He won his first England cap that February against Australia. Southampton's own records still rank the campaign among the best by any Saints forward.
Where the two stories rhyme
The echo is not exact. Beattie scored five times in year one, while Downs has yet to open his account.
In cash terms Beattie cost a quarter of what Downs did. That same £7m fee is the figure that once carried Kevin Davies out of the door.
What links them is patience. Downs and Beattie both came young, both wore a price tag that lifted expectations, and neither convinced straight away.
There is a clean slate for Downs that the young Beattie also enjoyed. Tonda Eckert never managed him through the barren season, so the coach carries no memory of it.
A change of manager helped Beattie too. Gordon Strachan arrived in 2001 and drew the goals out of him, much as Eckert now inherits Downs with a clean view.
Saints Marching noted that Downs was among several fringe men to catch the eye in Germany. The loud scoring demandsplaced on him have never matched his age or his short time in England.
What it says about Southampton now
The setting could hardly differ more from 2003. Southampton open 2026/27 in the Championship, and a four-point deduction hangs over the start.
The points were docked after the Spygate expulsion from May's play-off final. Promotion, not a cup run, is the aim this time.
Cyle Larin leads the line as the senior option. A second forward who costs nothing extra would ease the budget in a promotion year.
Southampton have chased a new forward all summer without landing one. A goal from inside the building eases that hunt, at least for a week.
That makes a cheap goal source valuable. If Downs grows into the striker Cologne once had, Southampton save the fee they might otherwise spend up front.
There is precedent on his side. Beattie's rise shows how well the wait can end, even when the first season gives little back.
One friendly goal proves nothing by itself. Yet Southampton have seen a doubted young striker come good before, so this one has earned the same patience.
Add us as a preferred source on Google