SAINTS may not have fielded their strongest line-up but facing Eastleigh was a chance for the fringe of Paul Sturrock's squad to impress.

In a mainly young team, it was one of the established stars and one of the young guns that secured Saints a 2-0 victory.

All eyes were on Neil McCann to see if he could enhance his first team chances.

Since his move south of the border from Rangers he's had a mixed time of it and even got booed by Saints fans when he came off the bench at St Mary's on one occasion last season.

That is not a comfortable scenario for any player and, although many of the fans who booed that day have apologised for their actions, there is little doubt he still has to convince many neutrals that he has what it takes for the Premiership.

Eastleigh may have been more modest competition than the likes of Arsenal and Newcastle, but he still did enough to suggest he will be in the reckoning this year.

Of course, one massive factor in his favour is that he's a natural leftsided player who plays on the left wing - something which Sturrock counts as desirable.

After Darren Kenton had gone close with a header and Simon Gillett had fired over from distance, McCann put his name on the scoresheet.

With 13 minutes gone he pressurised Chris Collins and pounced when the defender made a mistake.

He was left all alone with time and space to think about it and reacted perfectly to slot the ball across £10,000, 6ft 5in keeper Colin Matthews and into the far corner.

He may or may not have had a second on 51 minutes.

Arron Davies jinked round a couple of defenders and fired a low shot which just skidded under the hand of Matthews.

McCann steamed in and fired the ball into the net, but whether it had crossed the line already was a point of debate.

The stadium announcer handed it Davies, so who are we to argue? The whole match was keenly contested but Saints always had slightly the better of it against a team full of Saints connections, on and off the pitch.

Leandre Griffit, in particular, looked lively all night wide in midfield while Davies was a good frontrunning partner for Leon Best.

Trinidadian international Kenwyne Jones on his debut struggled to get into the game early on but influenced more in the centre of midfield in the second half.

Robbie Matthews had the best of the first half openings for Eastleigh just on the half- hour mark when he created some space but could only drag a low shot straight at Paul Smith.

Matthews came into his own with several superb saves.

Griffit curled in a free-kick that Matthews athletically turned round the post.

From the resulting corner Matthews was again on form to produce a double stop to keep out Jones and Best.

Best and Griffit then linked up with a neat one-two but again Matthews was there to keep out the young Frenchman and Best put his follow-up over.

Into the second half and Eastleigh sub Tyronne Bowers fired in a low shot that was saved by Smith.

After Saints had gone 2-0 ahead through Davies, the same player almost added a second when he stuck out a leg to connect with Gillett's long-range drive but it went just over.

Eastleigh almost got themselves back into the game when Paul Sales launched a towering header that Smith just turned over the bar from close range.

As both sides made plenty of changes there was still excitement in the game - Theo Walcott, just 15, in particular looking to have some impressive pace and tricky skills.

He's very much one to watch.

He came close to adding a third for Saints, as did Rupert Lowe's man of the match Best, whose side-footed effort from just inside the area clipped the top of the bar.

There was certainly some food for thought for Sturrock from the senior men and plenty of comfort for Saints fans to know their young players are developing nicely for the future.

Don't miss next Monday's Daily Echo for our in-depth 32-page guide to Saints' 2004/05 season.