AS a crowd of nearly 50,000 inside Feyenoord’s De Kuip stadium roared, Jose Fonte gathered the Saints players together in a huddle and reminded them of something.

This, he told his teammates in the seconds before kick-off, was the sort of occasion they have spent so long working towards – and one they must make sure they experience more regularly.

While it was only a pre-season friendly, the intensity of the atmosphere, certainly in the build-up and early stages of the match, made it feel more like an actual European tie.

Indeed, it was perhaps a taste of some of the nights Saints could be in for, now that they are a Europa League side.

“I said that, I said that in the huddle,” said Fonte, who will lead the team out in the third qualifying round against Vitesse next Thursday.

“I said that this is what we want to play week in week out, against these crowds and good teams like this club.

“It’s important to get the feeling of these kind of games and embrace it and enjoy it, and win this, like we did.”

Fonte agreed the encounter with the former club of Ronald Koeman, Graziano Pelle and Jordy Clasie, which Saints won 3-0, did not feel like a regular pre-season fixture.

“Of course, because 50,000 – it’s an old club of the manager and a few players,” he said. “It meant a lot to them and we was aware of that.

“We knew it would be a tough test, so we wanted to put a good performance to get prepared for next Thursday, which will be similar, so for us it was very important the way we approached the game.

“We showed a lot of character, although it was a friendly, but still it was a good performance, everyone took it very seriously, we showed another step, we proved a little bit more and we still have a couple of gears on us that we can improve and we can step up, but it was good, it was a good win. We could have scored more, but it was good.”