South Coast Foxile Steve Herbert has sent in this report from the reserves match this week at Southampton...

Saints 0 v 1 City Ressies.

Bit of a midfield battle at Saints training ground on a fairly mild Tuesday evening. Our boys shaped up pretty well, defending stoutly against a ponderous Saints attack.

The goal, on 85 minutes, was hardly a classic, although Matt Heath's thundering header - turned home by Jon Stevenson - deserved a larger audience than the thousand or so who turned up for FREE admission.

You may be surprised to know that Tom (my son) and I appeared to be the only City fans there - where were you all?!

Obviously when Stevo got the winner we kept our hands firmly in our pockets and our mouths shut - NOT! Boy, did we get some strange looks from the people standing around us as we greeted the goal in the time honoured fashion. Tom had insisted on wearing City scarf, gloves and a rather smart City top delivered earlier that day from Grandad, so we did stick out rather!

I thought you may like to read what we thought of our individual players, as I'm sure you'll be seeing some of them at a Premiership ground near you next season.

1. Paul Murphy. Young Irish keeper, looked good enough, made one very good save in the first half, palming away a 20 yarder at full stretch. Didn't take one cross that I can recall.

2. Andrew Impey. Pure class at this level, played some lovely stuff, beat several players on many runs from the back.

3. Gareth "Soups" Campbell. The first of Citys under 10s squad (he's not that short! - Ed!) to make an appearance. He's a good tackler and uses the ball well, but he's so little. If he grows he'll be good.

4. Matt Heath. Our man of the match. Saints tried him out early on with a few long balls - they soon abandoned that idea. This boy is almost ready to replace another Matt we have in the first team. Only made on mistake all night, but we got away with it.

5. Jon Ashton. Formed an effective partnership with Matt in the center of defence. Again, he looks a good 'un.

6. Junior Lewis. What can I say? Tackling and winning the ball he was superb. How does he get his legs into those positions? In possession he was frightening - to us, not Saints! Gave the ball away with alarming regularity, but won it back again just as often.

7. Leon McSweeney. Interesting player. Did ok without being brilliant. If he's 17 he could be ok, if he's 25 he'll never make it.

8. Martin Reeves. Our new Robbie Savage. He's a bit of a hard case, and doesn't mind mixing it. Substituted at half time, don't know if it was to save him being sent off or if he was injured. Wouldn't let the big lads down if he was asked to play.

9. Jon Stevenson. Bloody hell he's quick! Scored the goal, so probably feels he did his job. Another one from our under 10's squad. (Yeah, he IS small enough!- Ed) I can see why he's pushing for a first team slot.

10. Oooh Tommy Wright. I was looking forward to seeing Tommy, and was disappointed. He did some good things, but seemed more interesting in elbowing the Saints players than actually getting the ball. Was eventually booked for one elbow to many. Can't put my finger on what he didn't do, but he didn't do it!

11. Kevin Larvin. I think he's a trialist.(He's signed pro forms with us, signed from Leeds, England international - Ed) Worked very hard in midfield and didn't let the side down. Definitely worth persevering with.

12. Aaron Butcher. Now here's an interesting prospect. Don't know where he's popped up from, but he looks handy (U-17 squad - Ed). Played right side midfield, so may have been helped by having Imps behind him. Looked to be the third of our under 10's players, although to be fair he's a bit tall for them, so probably from the under 13 squad. 'Butch' seemd very comfortable on the ball, played some lovely one touch stuff with Imps, Junior (really!) and the front lads. Make a note of his name, we may see him on a bigger stage.

Tell us what you think about this in our FFS Fans Forum. And check out some of the Academy kids that are breaking through into the reserves on our Academy page here.