Ronald Koeman handed starts to a number of his players who have not been away on international duty over the past week, with Jay Rodriguez, Juanmi and Oriol Romeu all featuring.

New signing Virgil van Dijk made his first appearance in a Saints shirt at the heart of the defence alongside fellow summer recruit Steven Caulker.

Ryan Seager, who has missed the start of the season through injury, started in attack for Saints and almost opened the scoring early on as he hit the crossbar from the edge of the box with a lobbed effort.

Saints were awarded a penalty soon after following a foul on Sam McQueen, and although Rodriguez saw his spot-kick saved, the striker tapped home the rebound to open the scoring.

Despite Saints’ dominance, they were pegged back seven minutes later as Davis failed to keep out Josh Ruffels’s low drive from the edge of the box following a good team move from the visitors.

Just a minute later though, Saints regained their lead. Rodriguez played in Juanmi who, with the aid of a deflection, saw his strike loop over the goalkeeper and into the empty net.

The Spaniard almost grabbed a second just before half time after good work between Seager and Rodriguez, but his effort flew just over the top of the crossbar.

Juanmi had an effort well saved in the second half, while Davis made an excellent stop at the other end to preserve the lead for Saints as it finished 2-1.