MARK Hughes believes Charlie Austin’s winning goal against Brighton in the Carabao Cup second round will do the striker ‘a world of good’.

It was Austin’s first goal in 11 games as he headed home the 88th minute at the Amex Stadium to give Saints their first win of the 2018/19 campaign.

It ends a frustrating period for the 29-year-old frontman, who has looked out of sorts in the early part of this campaign but came on in the 81st minute for Manolo Gabbiadini and had a decisive impact.

“It’s important for Charlie. He’s struggled a bit in terms of creating chances and taking chances. It just affected his confidence a little bit but that will do him a world of good,” Hughes said.

“We need Charlie getting shots off and testing goalkeepers and when he’s in that vein of form then he’ll always score goals.”

Austin had dropped to the bench in the last two games with Danny Ings coming to the fore as Saints’ most prominent striker after his arrival on loan from Liverpool.

“In recent weeks he’s found it hard to make an impression in terms of when Charlie’s flying and in great form he’s always testing goalkeepers three or four times in a game,” Hughes added.

“But he hasn’t been able to do that. Whether that’s the team not supplying him or maybe him struggling for early season form but the goal will help him.”

It was a drab affair at Brighton, as two makeshift sides went at it, and it looked to be heading for penalties before Austin’s late header from fellow substitute Nathan Redmond’s cross.

Those two, along with Sam Gallagher, made a great impact from the bench for Saints and Hughes is pleased to get a first victory this term.

He said: “I thought we were always in control of the game. We didn’t really want it to go to penalties for obvious reasons because I thought that will give Brighton their best chance.

“I thought in general play and overall on the night we were in real command of the situation. I think in the second half, changes were made clearly at the top end of the pitch.

“We had a little bit more energy, a little bit more power and pace and I think that was the key to really taking the tie away from Brighton.

“That energy we introduced caused them to maybe sit back and spaces started to open and we were able to capitalise on that.”

He added: “We wanted to progress. We made a lot of changes like Chris (Hughton) did but it was still a very experienced team on paper.

“I think it shows the strength in depth that we have got at the club – that I can make so many changes and still negotiate a really difficult tie on paper.

“You come to a Premier League club irrespective of what personnel they pick. It was always going to be a difficult tie for us but we’ve come through and a lot of guys will benefit from it.

“A number of them hadn’t had a lot of game time and that probably affected the performance in the first half because guys were a little bit wary of how much energy they were able to expend in the first half.

“Clearly, if you haven’t played 90 minutes for a while then you’ve only got a certain amount of energy.

“But I thought they came out second half and stepped up, got their second wind from that point onwards and we saw the game out.”