Saints are hopeful that Stuart Armstrong will be fit to face Everton next weekend after limping off injured during his full debut.

The £7m summer signing from Celtic took a heavy blow early in the second half and was forced off.

Armstrong had played well up until that point and Hughes doesn’t think there is a serious problem for the 26-year-old to worry about.

“You have seen glimpses of what he will bring us,” said Hughes.

“He made good runs and the longer he’s with us we will be able to exploit them on more occasions and more readily.

“I was pleased with his performance and I saw him walking around in the dressing room and he looks fine. He just got a bang so I imagine he’ll be ok but we will check him tomorrow.”

Saints will certainly want Armstrong available as they look to follow-up their opening day goalless draw.

“We just allowed them too many opportunities where we didn’t get our system right,” added Hughes.

“The three centre halves maybe needed a little bit more clarity. Once we went to a back four we needed to defend correctly.

“We haven’t had a lot of time working with the three lads, it’s only been three or four weeks and at times you saw they were maybe a little bit at odds in terms of who would engage and who would drop off and we got that wrong on a couple of occasions.

“Going to a back four actually helped us as it was more playing in a straight line and we could make their balls into the front men more predictable.”