Saints start their first team pre season in earnest at Cheltenham.

The truth of the matter is the serious work starts at Whaddon Road tomorrow, it is the first serious 90 minutes of football in a genuine first team enviroment.

Of course the squad is still a long way from how it will look on the opening day, its certain there will be movement out as well as movement in, however Jan Poortvliet can only play what he has to hand and start to mould the squad.

An 18 man squad travels including two goalkeepers, notable absentees are Marek Saganoski who its felt isnt quite ready alongside his fellow Pole Rasiak who has a slight knock, although Rudi Skacel is also missing suggesting his move away is imminent.

You would hope that the team will be starting to take shape now, although from what I know of European methods, the aim will be to give all the players at least a full 90 minutes in one of the four games, plus at least two halves in the others.

Cheltenham are a step up in standard for Saints and will give a clear view of how the change in style is being adapted to by the players.

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