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BODENS BK 0 - SAINTS 1

From the archive, first published Thursday 6th Nov 2003.

THE SVENSSON'S finally took to the field together in red and white for the first time last night but the Swedish fans were left wanting more.

Anders and £2m summer signing Michael have been the stars of Saints' pre-season Scandinavian tour thanks to Anders' starring role in the World Cup - but up until yesterday they hadn't even played.

Everywhere Anders went he was mobbed by fans but, after both the Svenssons and Wayne Bridge were given an extra week off earlier this month, they weren't considered fit enough to be unleashed together until last night.

But for the 7,000 fans that turned up at Boden last night, the performance of the Premier League side was slightly disappointing.

From a Southampton point of view, although the quality of their football was not what it has been so far on this tour, this could be seen as a good workout.

Bodens are a decent side, a team with a very strong spine who were determined and not overawed by the Swedish heroes facing them.

They closed down sharply, they hustled, harried, fought hard and made Saints work for everything.

Unfortunately for Saints, it was probably the worse game to come across that, with the full rigours of the tour and pre-season training beginning to show.

But, nevertheless, Saints end the tour with a three-match winning run which can only give them a whole load of confidence.

The goal that separated the teams came in the 60th minute thanks to the surging run of one the World Cup players - Bridge - who cut into the box before the referee adjudged he was tripped.

James Beattie stepped up and calmly slotted home the penalty to the left-hand side, sending the keeper the wrong way for his second goal in three games.

And that's another positive to be taken from the tour. The potency of the strikers and the miserliness of the defence.

Kevin Davies, Beattie and Brett Ormerod made an appearance in each of the three matches with Davies and Beattie hitting the net twice each and Ormerod three times.

But Gordon Strachan admitted that this performance looked tired and it did.

The defence, who have conceded only one goal in the three games, were strong again but it took the half-time introduction of Matt Oakley, Rory Delap and Chris Marsden to kick start the midfield.

Possession had been lost cheaply in the first half but once Delap got fired up and started running at the Bodens defence things really started to happen.

There were several half chances for Saints and plenty of goalmouth scrambles and both Paul Jones and Neil Moss were called upon to make good saves.

Moss saved Saints blushes 17 minutes from time by stopping Robert Lundgren, who had dispossessed Claus Lundekvam to break through one-on-one.

Once Moss had deflected the shot wide Lundgren found the angle too tight and hit the side netting.

But the summary of this tour would be three games three wins, defence not conceding and strikers scoring. There is still plenty to be done but this is a genuinely good start.

TEAM CHECK:

Saints: Jones (Moss 61), Dodd (Bleidelis 79), M Svensson (Monk 79), Williams (Lundekvam 45), Bridge (Benali 82), Telfer (Marsden 45), ASvensson (Delap 45), Tessem (Oakley 45), Fernandes, Beattie, Ormerod (Davies 71).

Bodens: Tervaniemi (Lindqvist 72), Stoltz (Petterson 57), Petterson, Roberts, Kallaste, Johansson (Jonsson 84), Lundgren (Slaryd 76), Winroth (Nordin 84), Halonen, Eriksson (Lindgren 45), Slaryd (Slato 61).

Attendance: 7,004

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