Saints were well beaten as they lost their final pre-season friendly 3-0 to Borussia Monchengladbach at St Mary’s.

The German side, cheered on by a few hundred bare chested travelling fans, dealt with the sweltering conditions better as they ran out comfortable winners.

Were it not for Alex McCarthy the scoreline could have been even worse for Saints, who now have just over a week to get things right before Burnley visit for the opening Premier League game of the season.

Saints somewhat laboured in the heat in the first half with Borussia Monchengladbach the more threatening team for the majority.

The Germans almost took the lead after just 18 seconds as one simple pass picked out Fabian Johnson, whose diagonal run saw him dart between and behind Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek but Alex McCarthy made a fine save with his legs.

Saints had really their only strong attacking spell of the half as Vestergaard headed off target before Manolo Gabbiadini had his team’s only good chance of the first period, forcing Yann Sommer to save one handed after superb build up and an excellent reverse pass from Stuart Armstrong.

The rest of the first half belonged to Monchengladbach and but for some wanton finishing and McCarthy they would have been out of sight at the break.

They took the lead on 21 minutes as Saints’ right side was exposed by a slide rule pass down the line that set Johnson away. He looked up and spotted Patrick Herrmann darting in at the far post and the attacker got ahead of Bednarek and had a simple close range finish.

McCarthy came to the rescue on 40 minutes as the ball was lifted into the path of Johnson but his first time shot was well saved at the near post.

Herrmann should have added his second before the break when another easy pass split the Saints defence but the German opened up his body when one-on-one and put the ball wide.

Things continued in a similar vein early in the second half and Monchengladbach did get a second goal four minutes after the restart.

Half time sub Denis Zakaria picked up the ball just inside the Saints half but was allowed to meander forward and shift it to his right foot. With nobody closing fast he took on a shot from 20 yards that moved in the air and beat McCarthy.

It got even worse for Saints on 58 minutes as Herrmann made it 3-0, finishing low across McCarthy after another simple diagonal pass had carved open the defence.

McCarthy wouldn’t be beaten six minutes later as he produced a brilliant save to keep out Mickael Cuisance when it seemed he would score.

With both sides changing virtually their entire team, the match got disjointed and the momentum did switch towards Saints.

Vestergaard headed a half chance off target while Shane Long hit a stinging shot off balance and from a tight angle that the keeper had to turn over.

Maya Yoshida should have scored with a free header from a corner from five yards out but put over before Nathan Redmond worried the Germans with a sweet shot from distance that bent just wide.

Moi Elyounoussi had the final chance of the game as his low shot across goal was stopped by Tobias Sippel.

Saints: McCarthy, Targett (McQueen 79), Bednarek (Stephens 46), Vestergaard (Yoshida 68), Hoedt (Davis 79), Bertrand, Hojbjerg (Romeu 62), Lemina (W-Prowse 62), Armstrong (Elyounoussi 46), Gabbiadini (Long 68), Austin (Redmond 68).

B Monchengladbach: Sommer (Sippel 46), Beyer, Jantschke (Mayer 65), Ginter (Cuisance 57), Wendt (Poulsen 59), Strobl (Egbo 76), Hofmann (Bennetts 76), Neuhaus (Zakaria 46), Traore (Herrmann 9), Johnson (Plea 46), Raffael.