Alan Pardew was happy with a win at Barnet, and says it is now onwards and upwards as the season gets ever closer.
The manager hopes to name an even stronger side against Reading on Saturday for the sole pre season fixture at St. Mary's, where he aims to have everyone at the races.
"We now up the levels," he said after the 1-0 success at Underhill. "We left seven or eight senior players at home and hopefully they'll be involved on Saturday because they need a game.
"I need players in form and Lallana hasn't seen a lot of games, so we can't say he's in form, Puncheon was good but he's missed these last couple of games so it's about getting everybody up to pace.
"Tonight I was very pleased. We blooded a load of youngsters and I thought they did really well. It's never easy to come here and get a win so were pleased with that.
"It's a difficult challenge here because of the slope of the pitch and the opposition we were up against, but we stood up well against that.
"Our two centre halves, Racine and Martin, stood up to that and were terrific.
"A few young players like Oxlade-Chamberlain had a game he'd like to forget quickly but that's what football does to you when you're young. He needs to get rid of that inconsistency, but we had very solid performances."
Another plus for the gaffer was the chance to run the rule over trialist midfielder Darren Carter as he continues to have a look at what's available on the market.
"We had an opportunity for Darren to come and play for us and we took that opportunity to have a look at him.
"He's had a good career with some good clubs and I thought he did well. He worked hard and showed a lot of commitment to Southampton for the match.
"I think the situation basically is that he's free to find a club and not a lot of senior players would come out and play the way he's played.
"Fair play to him, he put himself in the shop window and he did himself a favour really. I'll talk to him and discuss what our plans are and whether they fit in with what Darren can do but we're still hoping to bring one or two players in before we start.
"We might not secure them but we'll be pretty close - I'm pretty confident we can start the season with the squad we've got but we do want a couple more additions - maybe three."
