For young Saints ace Matt Targett, the Capital One Cup will always hold special memories.

And the 19-year-old hopes there are a few more to come in this season’s competition yet.

Left-back Targett made his debut for the club in the second round of this year’s cup, helping the team to a 2-0 win at Millwall.

Better would follow a few weeks later, as he started the 2-1 victory at Arsenal.

As Saints head to Stoke tonight, to fight it out for a place in the quarter-finals, Targett is hoping the competition still has more to offer.

“It’s obviously a special competition, making my first-team debut at Millwall,” he said.

“It’s a special cup, and hopefully we can go on to win it.”

Targett added: “Since the start, the manager said he wants to take it seriously, but Stoke will be a really tough game.

“It’s going to be a tough night, physically and mentally.

“They’re a tough team to break down, but hopefully if we move the ball quick and play our normal game we can break them down.”

Targett has been with the Saints academy since joining at the age of eight, when he was a pupil at Cherbourg Primary School in his hometown of Eastleigh.

He has since graduated all the way through the ranks and is one of the most highly-regarded prospects to have emerged from the youth system recently.

His assured performances in his first two starts for the club suggest there is every reason to be excited by his potential.

Targett himself said he learned a lot from playing in both matches.

Recalling his debut at Millwall, he said: “I was pretty nervous, but more excited than anything else.

“I learned quite a lot. Millwall are a tricky team and it’s tough going away to them on a Tuesday night, but we dug in well to win.”

If that was hard, then what about the next round?

“That was a special night, playing against great players such as Arsenal have got,” said Targett, who was part of the first Saints team in 27 years to win away to the Gunners.

“Obviously, it’s a special ground, a special team and we did well to beat them.”

His duties that night involved marshalling Arsenal forward Joel Campbell, who was coming off an impressive summer.

“He’d had a good World Cup,” exclaimed Targett, who had watched as Campbell powered Costa Rica to the quarter-finals in Brazil.

“It was good to play against him, after seeing what he’d done.

“I think I learned a lot more then. The tempo’s so much quicker, playing against the world class players like Arsenal have got, so it was good.”

Targett also made his home debut a few days after the Arsenal win, coming on as a late substitute in the 2-1 Premier League victory against QPR.

“That was the first time I had played at home in front of all the fans, so it was good to run out in front of them,” he said.

Whether Targett gets to continue his development by playing at the Britannia Stadium tonight remains to be seen, but he is learning plenty on the training ground this season, not just from manager Ronald Koeman and his coaching staff, but also Saints’ first-choice left-back, Ryan Bertrand.

“He’s done really well since he came in, really consistent,” said Targett.

“At training he’s helping me out a lot, like defending-wise and body position and all that, being a good defender like he is.”