Alan Pardew felt that Saints were kick-started back into life at half time in the 2-0 win over Stockport County.
The manager admitted that it was a disjointed first 45 minutes from his team which needed some freshening up during the half time interval.
"We lost our way in the first half," he said. "In trying to encourage us to pass the ball we decided to stand still and pass the ball and you can't win any game at any level like that. In the second half we just adjusted a few things, put some energy into the team with the same players.
"When you're playing against professional teams you have to give them the respect they have as professionals, and we didn't really do that. We felt we were going to be comfortable just passing through them and it wouldn't be a problem today, football doesn't work like that. We managed to get that message across at half time, and to be fair to the players I thought their response was excellent.
"I thought they were very nervous today, things didn't go well at the start and I think that affected one or two. Anyway, second half I thought we were a lot better and a lot more like us, got the goals and then we controlled the game which was nice to see.
"We really needed to get a goal to help settle us. To get a goal in that period was important because it was probably our best period of the game. I'm pleased for Rickie too, because he looked like he needed a goal, just to give him a little lift."
Papa Waigo's introduction to the game made a telling impact as the Senegalese front man's arrival coincided with Saints taking the lead in the match just past the hour mark.
"Papa came on and was excellent and helped us by just linking things up a little better for us. He's got that talent, we have some big games coming up where Papa might feature and he has that talent that on his day can take us up a level.
"Lee Barnard had missed a couple of big chances for us and I think that it has affected him a little bit, he is new and still finding his feet so he'll be fine. We have such quality on the bench, we had no Adam Lallana and no David Connolly today, Jason Puncheon has obviously signed and we are still missing Dean Hammond so we have some quality to come into the side. We had some big players missing today so it's a good win in that respect.
"We have had a great run of games, we have drawn a couple here and there that has cost us some progress, but that is going to happen in a season. We know that we have got to win three quarters of our games left we have done that today, and not lost anyone to any injuries so we go onto the next one."
