US Edition New signing Rickie Lambert found the scoresheet on his debut as Southampton eased their way into the second round of the Carling Cup.
Lambert arrived with a £1 million price tag on his head after signing from Bristol Rovers on Monday, but the 27-year-old took less than half an hour to begin paying his new team back by finishing off a well-worked move from close range.
Northampton, one of the favourites for promotion in League Two, were composed on the ball and sporadically threatened from set pieces. They could have equalised when Steve Guinan found himself unmarked in the area, but his punt sailed narrowly over.
Adam Lallana nudged home a second from six yards midway through the second half to extinguish any hopes of an upset. Despite the win, though, Southampton manager Alan Pardew will be keen to address some major frailties in his defence, who were prone to lapses in concentration and looked shaky when dealing with crosses.
Match details:
Southampton: Davis, Murty (Thomson 77), Thomas, Lancashire, Harding, James, Wotton, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Lambert (Gobern 86), Paterson (Rasiak 67). Subs: Bialkowski (g), Perry, Gillett, Holmes.
Northampton Town: Dunn, Beckwith, Hinton, McCready, Holt, Gilligan (Dyer 63), Rose (Akinfenwa 56), Osman, Marshall, Guinan, McKay (Curtis 56). Subs: Walker (g), Rodgers, Benjamin, Jacobs.