Mauricio Pellegrino gets his first win as Southampton manager as his team beat St Etienne 3-0

Mauricio Pellegrino claimed his first win as Saints boss as his side rounded off their pre-season trip to France with a 3-0 victory over St Etienne.

The Ligue 1 side provided reasonable opposition in Chambery, but Saints proved too strong with Manolo Gabbiadini and James Ward-Prowse scoring in the space of two second half minutes before Maya Yoshida added a third.

After draws with St Gallen and Brentford, the win was a welcome boost for Pellegrino, who started Charlie Austin in a deeper role off of Gabbiadini.

After a fairly benign opening to the match, Kevin Monnet-Paquet had the first effort of any note on 34 minutes but fired into the side netting for St Etienne.

Gabbiadini should have given Saints the lead a minute later as Loic Perrin presented him with a golden chance via an horrendous pass across his own six yard box. However, the Italian striker slid in and put wide from a couple of yards out.

Gabbiadini had a couple more efforts before the break, blazing narrowly over with a half volley from just inside the area and forcing Stephane Ruffier into a good save down to his left after firing across goal.

The second half was an altogether livelier affair, which Saints certainly had the better of.

They got an early let-off when Jonathan Bamba’s shot took a deflection and struck the post, while Kenny Rocha Santos produced a weak far post header to hand half time sub Stuart Taylor a more comfortable save than he should have had.

After Sofiane Boufal’s diving header was blocked by the legs of Ruffier, Saints took control of the game with a quick-fire double.

Matt Targett, a second half replacement for Ryan Bertrand, created them both from left-back.

The first, on 64 minutes, found a header from Gabbiadini from 15 yards out which seemed to take Ruffier by surprise as he virtually watched it in.

The second, two minutes later, was a Targett cut back to James Ward-Prowse, who marked his first appearance of pre-season with a tidy side footed finish from ten yards.

Ward-Prowse turned provider four minutes from time as his corner was powered in by the head of Maya Yoshida from the edge of the six yard box.

Saints are returning home straight after the game and are due to report back to Staplewood at the start of next week to prepare for their final two pre-season games against Augsburg and Sevilla.

Saints: Forster (Taylor 45), Pied (Jones 80), Stephens (Bednarek 80), Yoshida, Bertrand (Targett 57), Davis (Clasie 80), Romeu (Hojbjerg 74), Tadic (Gallagher 85), Austin (Ward-Prowse 59), Boufal (McQueen 57), Gabbiadini (Long 74).