There is a limit as to just how far you can stretch a squad the size of Saints.

From Claude Puel’s point of view last night’s game was, ultimately, job done.

Saints made it through to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup and Puel was able to rest many of the first team regulars he is relying upon to get through this latest crazy run of games.

In that respect his decisions were justified, and when you get a result it is hard to argue.

However, this was a stodgy performance from Saints compared to the standards they have set themselves of late.

They were fortunate to be playing a Sunderland side who were low on confidence and, bluntly, pretty poor.

The match is sure to spark the debate over the use of the club’s academy graduates once again.

It became a very delicate subject during Ronald Koeman’s time in charge.

Behind the scenes there was frustration that Koeman showed little interest in trying to integrate many of the club’s home produced young players into the first team.

That annoyance was only intensified by the fact that Koeman was publically very honest about it.

However, with Koeman a popular and, crucially, successful manager, it would have been inappropriate to complain or be seen to meddle with his ideas, and the club sensibly did the right thing.

The appointment of Puel has given a fresh impetus to the club to be able to try and get the pathway established once again.

Saints want this to happen badly, from a philosophical point of view, and no doubt a business sense as well.

Koeman’s argument would be you can only play if you are good enough.

With this huge raft of games Puel took a look for himself.

The overall verdict would have been that nobody let themselves or the club down and they all gave it a good go, but there is work to do if some of them are to make a major breakthrough.

Lloyd Isgrove, Jack Stephens and Harrison Reed were all given a chance, Sam McQueen stayed in the side and Olufela Olomola was introduced early on.

Some of these players need it to happen for them now if it is to at St Mary’s. Isgrove is 23, Stephens 22, Reed 21.

The likes of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Nathan Redmond, and James Ward-Prowse are all the same age.

In fairness, it wasn’t easy for them, and maybe they are not helped by the fact that they do not play Puel’s first team formation every week at lower levels.

It also is not easy to just come in and perform, and while it would not be fair to criticise harshly, these are rare chances that need to be taken in the context of a career at that age. When Saints have less fixtures later on this season they may not come around again.

In the end it was a 23-year-old who settled a pretty awful game, with record signing Sofiane Boufal producing the only real take home memory for most fans who packed into three stands – the shutdown Kingsland the only exception.

The first half really was uneventful stuff, though uneventful might be generous.

Saints’ inexperience was showing in so much as the team didn’t look like the normal fluent and cohesive unit that Puel has been able to boast in recent weeks.

That wasn’t helped by the injury to Rodriguez, and the introduction of a debutant in Olomola, but it was a mark of just how low Sunderland have sunk that they never looked like taking advantage, and that despite David Moyes picking a more experienced side than he had hinted at pre-match.

The only real sights of goal for Saints came early and late in the half as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg drilled in a low shot that was blocked and Olomola blasted well over.

For Sunderland, who seemed to have few ideas as to how to break Saints down, there wasn’t a chance at all, merely an unsuccessful half-hearted penalty appeal as Duncan Watmore collided with Sam McQueen and went down in the Saints area.

As for Boufal, there was one mesmerising first half glimpse of skill, as he felt his way into it.

The second period got off to much the same start.

Sunderland did have a couple of wayward early efforts, Patrick van Aanholt sending a free kick over the bar and Watmore slashing wildly off target.

Then came the moment that lit up the match.

Jose Fonte produced a fairly agricultural kind of high clearance on 66 minutes. It fell to Boufal just inside the penalty area on the left side.

The Moroccan took three wonderful touches, the first to bring the ball perfectly under control, the second to shift it out of his feet to give himself a yard and the third to curl a perfect right footed shot into the opposite top corner.

The Black Cats tried to get something out of the game. A combination of Isgrove and the post blocked Paddy McNair’s far post header from a corner, an optimistic penalty shout for handball against Fonte was waved away and sub Jermaine Defoe had a low near post drive blocked by Alex McCarthy.

After Maya Yoshida survived another late penalty appeal David Moyes was sent to the stands for protesting too vociferously.

In the end it was job done.

For Puel, in this kind of run of fixtures, that will be all that counts.