Cameron Archer left Aston Villa in the summer and has recently broken into the Southampton starting line-up
Russell Martin has backed Cameron Archer after starting his Southampton career with a series of costly misses.
Archer, a £15million summer signing from Aston Villa, marked his first start for the Saints with two goals in a 5-3 Carabao Cup victory over Cardiff City last month.
However, having been drip-fed into the team off the bench, he has started the last two matches in the Premier League and has come away short-changed.
Following a costly penalty miss in last weekend’s 3-0 loss to Manchester United, with the scores tied at 0-0, Archer squandered two golden chances on Saturday before Martin’s men conceded a last-gasp equaliser to draw 1-1 with Ipswich.
To be fair to the 22-year-old he showed good pace and strength to take himself though on goal on both occasions before hitting the post in the first half and being denied by the goalkeeper in the second.
Southampton manager Martin hopes Archer will soon find his feet at the highest level.
“Cam needs to get his first goal,” said Martin. “He had a couple of chances but he was such a threat. When he gets that first goal, I think he’ll really take off. We need to just keep doing what we’re doing, keep progressing, keep getting better and it will come.”
To be fair to Archer he has scored in the Premier League, four times for Sheffield United last term, including late in last season’s 1-1 draw at Villa Park. He also scored 11 in 23 games on loan at Middlesbrough in the Championship a couple of seasons ago.
As for Southampton, they are winless after five games, with only one point and the lowest scorers in the division, meaning Sam Morsy’s late leveller was a hammer blow.
Martin remains undeterred: “The connection between them (fans) and the team last year was incredible and they’ve carried that on and now we need to give them something to really cheer about. But I hope they can see a team that is fighting, running so hard for each other, trying to be the team we want to be in the Premier League.
“No-one said it was going to be easy but we are going to need everyone to stick together, and they’re certainly doing that. We’ll all feel frustrated and hurt and angry (about Saturday) but we put in a performance everyone can be fairly happy with and they have a team that is fighting for everything. We have to trust that the results will follow and I really, really believe that (they will).”
