WILL Smallbone “deserves to have this chance” says Ralph Hasenhuttl, after the 21-year-old made his first Premier League appearance since suffering an ACL injury in January.

The Basingstoke-born midfielder performed well in a cameo appearance during the EFL Cup tie with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge six weeks ago, but has had to wait patiently as he continues his scaling to full fitness.

Smallbone had made the bench for each of the last five fixtures but was yet to be called upon by Hasenhuttl.

And although he still looked off the pace at times – as expected, having been 11 months since his last league start – his potentially quality on the ball showed with a free-kick delivery that found Armando Broja early in the first-half.

With a shortage of forwards as Stuart Armstrong and Adam Armstrong remained on the sidelines, the Saints boss insists that the opportunity had been earned through hard work at Staplewood Campus.

“I was brave to let him start today,” Hasenhuttl said, speaking after the 2-2 draw.

“I think he deserves to have this chance as what I have seen in the last few weeks is good. Constantly working hard in the sessions, constantly showing up in the sessions.

“That gives me a good feeling for giving such a young lad a chance to play and I must say as well I see the energy to run and fight, it was good.

“You can see at the end he was a little bit running out of energy and you have to sub him but it was a good performance today.”