Southampton manager Ruben Selles insisted he has faith in young striker Dom Ballard.
The academy starlet managed his second professional bow as a substitute in a 2-1 loss to Grimsby Town in the FA Cup.
Despite the setback of losing to a League Two side, Selles looked for the positives and saw them in Ballard.
I think that we need to find the pathway for the young players to get into the first team and today was a great occasion for him," Selles said post-game.
We needed to score a goal in the last minutes and we included him because he has that X factor that you need to be a good goalscorer and we didn't hesitate to put him in."
He added: We knew that in the game plan we would need striker, we put Joe Aribo on and Theo Walcott as strikers and then we needed a third one and we had Dom Ballard.
That was the game plan in case we needed it and yeah, when they are good enough, we have no problem to play them."