Saints’ season is officially up and running.

Sometimes in football you just need a win, other times a big performance.

Claude Puel must have felt as if he required both against Sparta Prague as Saints started their Europa League campaign at St Mary’s.

It has been a very scratchy start to the campaign.

While defeats away to Manchester United and Arsenal are nothing to be ashamed of, home draws against Watford and Sunderland were a long way from what a new manager would want.

Those results really piled the pressure on to this week.

Two very winnable looking home matches had to deliver victories.

The first of those was against Sparta last night.

Puel was as a good as his word and rotated his squad with seven changes to the starting line-up, proving he really does have the faith in the depth of his talent pool that he has claimed.

Saints were undoubtedly the better team throughout but got a leg up to help them on the way, with some generous refereeing – you might say they had earned that – and Sparta’s team selection.

The talk from those in the know in the build-up was that the Europa League was very much a secondary consideration for them this season, as they target winning the Czech title and returning to the lucrative Champions League.

With Inter Milan leaving out star names from their squad, and getting beaten at the San Siro by minnows Hapoel Beer Sheva, it looks a group that Saints can very much get out of.

However, above all else, and before Swansea visit for what is a great opportunity for a first Premier League win for Puel, Saints needed to generate some momentum behind them.

Though the atmosphere for this game didn’t feel quite as magical as the Vitesse Arnhem fixture where it all started for Saints in this competition last season, there was still an air of expectancy and anticipation around St Mary’s.

Saints started by looking to keep possession and draw out a Sparta team who had made little secret of the fact they intended to get men behind the ball and defend deep.

Puel’s men quickly realised they needn’t worry too much about that, they were so comfortably superior.

They got off to the perfect start, albeit in somewhat surreal circumstances.

Charlie Austin pinged in a cross from the right by-line that was blocked by the sliding Costa.

Everybody lined up for the corner after appeals for handball were initially turned down, before the referee then pointed to the spot.

It was very harsh having been hit at Costa from such close range but nevertheless Saints weren’t complaining.

Dusan Tadic and Austin had a rather strong and unseemly disagreement over who was going to take it before captain Virgil van Dijk got involved, dragging the Serbian away, and allowing Austin the chance to duly bury the penalty in the bottom corner.

Van Dijk might have scored himself six minutes later but headed over from six yards out before Austin forced Tomas Koubek into a near post save and later had a header that did hit the back of the net but was correctly chalked out for offside.

There was no stopping Austin on 27 minutes though as Martina broke down the right and, after a quick one-two and an initial blocked cross, produced a beautiful weighted ball that invited Austin to head back across goal and in, which he did via the fingertips of Koubek.

For their part, Sparta never really created anything in the first half that greatly threatened Fraser Forster.

Saints got out of the blocks quickly again in the second period, and Tadic forced Koubek into a save as he cut in from the right and hit a low left footed shot.

From there the match rather bimbled along.

Saints were comfortable in possession, but not moving it forward as quickly as they were prepared to in the first half, where a mix and match style had seem some direct balls that had played to Austin’s strengths.

Sparta brought on their prolific veteran striker David Lafata. He showed his class with a fiercely struck drive from just outside the area on 68 minutes which forced Forster into a first meaningful save of the night.

As the game coasted towards a close, and with Sparta unable to breach a tight Saints defensive unit, the result was only heading one way.

Saints had a late penalty shout waved away as Maya Yoshida went down in the area, but it was never likely to make a difference to the way the points were going.

They did get a third to round things off in stoppage time at the end of the game.

Sub Jay Rodriguez started the move, passing to Steven Davis and breaking forward. He played it outside to Long who squared in the area to Rodriguez. The striker brilliantly opened up his body and finished right footed into the opposite bottom corner for 3-0.

Saints got the win and the performance that Puel so needed, and, though there is still a way to go, they are in a strong position to get through the group.

A win against Swansea in just a couple of days, which will surely lift Saints into midtable in the Premier League, and things will suddenly have taken on a very different look in a very short space of time.