ANGUS Gunn is relishing the prospect of Che Adams leading Saints’ attack in the Premier League.

The Saints goalkeeper has been encouraged by Adams’ performances throughout pre-season, which culminated in his two assists in the 2-0 win against FC Koln on his St Mary’s debut, after goals against SCR Altach, Guangzhou and Feyenoord.

Gunn said: “We haven’t been as busy as other teams in the transfer marker but we’ve brought in really good quality.

“Che has been massive in pre-season I’m surprised he didn’t get a goal in the first ten minutes on Saturday because he has in every other game so far!

“But he got the assist for the penalty and is a big target for us up front.

“He’ll be a huge player for us, he fits into the squad and the manager’s style of play really well.”

Adams played on the right against Koln, with Nathan Redmond on the left of Danny Ings.

“We have great attacking quality with different options for the manager,” continued Gunn.

Saints looked vulnerable at times against Koln but two good saves ensured Gunn kept a clean sheet.

It completed an unbeaten pre-season after a 1-1 draw with SCR Altach, a 4-0 win in Guangzhou, a 3-1 win at Preston and a 3-1 victory against Feyenoord.

“We’re really pleased,” continued Gunn. “We’ve performed well, it’s been a good pre-season all in all and it was important mentally to get a ‘two-zip on Saturday.’

“Hopefully we can carry that on into the season. Pre-season is a strange one because games can be stop-start with substitutions in the second half.

“But I felt we defended well for most of the game.

“Koln are a good side and hopefully we can build on everything we’ve done in pre-season and take it into the Premier League.”

Saints began with three centre-halves in Jannik Vestergaard, Jan Bednarek and Jack Stephens before playing the last 15 minutes with Maya Yoshida and Bednarek in a back four.

“The manager wasn’t here but that was always the plan, to make sure we’re not one-dimensional and that we’re very fluent going into the season,” explained Gunn.

“Whether we need to defend games or chase games, we know exactly what we’re doing.”

After playing 11 of Saints’ last 12 games of last season, Gunn is looking forward to starting a Premier League season for the first time.

“My first target is to play every game, get a whole season under my belt and build on last season by being more consistent,” said the 23 year-old, who has been working with new goalkeeping coach in Andrew Sparkes for the last month, after Dave Watson was promoted to first-team assistant coach.

Sparkes was first-team goalkeeping coach with the Orlando Pirates in South Africa and has a wealth of other experience.

He was previously head of academy goalkeeping at Swansea City and the New York Red Bulls and also spent a season coaching FC Red Bull Salzburg’s U18s goalkeepers.

“It’s good to still have Dave around as part of the coaching team but I’ve changed coach quite a lot from moving clubs and being away with the [England] Under-21s so it’s something I’m used to,” continued Gunn.

“Andrew’s open minded and really good with the lads and it’s always good to learn from a different style of coaching, to try different ideas and different training methods.”