If losing a two goal lead in the last 25 minutes wasn't bad enough for the Liverpool faithful trooping out of St Mary's, the stadium announcer piled n the misery with news of their U21 fixture with Saints.

Jay Rodriguez travelled up to Merseyside with the Saints U21 squad on Sunday to take on Liverpool and showed that he is on the road to recovery as he hit a hat trick in a 5-0 Saints win.

This was gleefully relayed to the celebrating Saints masses as they trooped out of St Mary's on Sunday afternoon and it must have heaped a little bit more misery on the Liverpool fans still shellshocked by Saints storming finish to the game.

Saints took a mixture of experience and youth up to the North West with Jay Rodriguez being joined by Matt Targett, Harrison Reed, Paulo Gazzaniga, Sam Gallagher and Jake Hesketh all of whom have first team experience.

Liverpool's side also had first team experience with Adam Bogdan, Jordan Ibes, Jose Enrique & Joao Teixeira all with a lot of experience at a high level.

But Saints blitzed them with Jake Hesketh opening the scoring after only 5 mins and then Jay Rodriguez scoring his first after 35 mins that saw Saints take a 2-0 lead at half time.

But unlike Liverpool's first team Saints U21's didn't throw it all away in the second half, Josh Sims made it 3-0 two minutes into the second half and on 55 minutes J Rod scored his second to give the visitors a four goal cushion.

On 64 minutes ironically exactly the same time of the game that Saints started their comeback back down South, Rodriguez scored Saints 5th and completed his hat trick, coming off in the 78th minute after a big step on the road to recovery.

With Saints next game two weeks away at Leicester City and with not only Jay Rodriguez but Charlie Austin back in contention Saints will feel that they can catch the Foxes in jittery mood and take a big step towards perhaps a stab at a top four finish.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 16:11 - Mar 21 Jay has to be back in contention for the senior squad at Leicester now, no doubt
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SaintBrock added 10:58 - Mar 22 The performance of the U 21's is weird and disappointing, win one week lose the next and so on, no consistency whatsoever. Remember these are the kids who are supposed to carry us forward into the next decade but they are certainly not world beaters by any means Scoring three at this level doesn't mean Jay is ready for PL action - Seagar has done it as well but never got near the first team - but it is a step more forward in his rehabilitation. I suppose Ronald will put him on the bench at the Kingpower if only because what other options does he have?

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