Alan Pardew felt that a solid performance from his side backed up a fine win at League One leaders Norwich City.
A combination of cup games and injuries have prevented the Saints manager from fielding a team including all of his recent additions to the squad, including double goal scoring hero Lee Barnard who notched his first goals for the Club in the 2-0 success.
"We managed to field our strongest team, with the Cup games we have had I have had to mix it up a little bit, but today I picked what I felt was our strongest side and we performed admirably," he said afterwards.
"I'm so pleased for Lee (Barnard) because our fans will know that he missed a big chance away at Brentford, missed a chance at home against Stockport so his settling in period hasn't been good. He needed those goals today, and on the back of his hard work I thought he was Man of the Match today, he was brilliant for us, which is good news as we now have him and Rickie Lambert up front.
"When you bring in players in the January transfer window it can sometimes take them a while to settle in. Everyone has been here for a bit now, and we all know each other and we have a bit more quality on the pitch now. It's about a balance, and I actually think that the MK Dons match was the catalyst for us really. We were terrific that night and we took that into the Portsmouth match when we were so unlucky, but today we got our reward."
The unrelenting approach to the game he set his side out to achieve was on full show throughout the ninety minutes at Carrow Road, although Pardew admitted that the red card shown to Norwich midfielder Darel Russell helped the hosts' concentration more.
"People get bogged down with shapes and everything else, but it is about the attitude of mind, and our attitude of mind was to attack Norwich and knock them out of their stride a little. Until the sending off, which was harsh, they weren't really in the game, we were going along quite steadily, it affected us more than them I felt.
"We were inexperienced at times, and we were at the end because we should have won by three or four really, but I can't fault the players today they were very professional and gave a very good performance here."
Fellow January addition Jason Puncheon also showed what he is capable of with an all action display which was capped off by the assist for Barnard's second goal.
"I think that the Southampton fans will find that they have a new hero soon," Pardew beamed. "He has fantastic talent, he has shown that in training and showed that on the pitch today, he is a really comfortable player on the ball and I think that Southampton fans like that in a player. Players like Matt Le Tissier are comfortable with the ball at their feet, and Jason is that type of player. We would never put pressure on him to say that he is going to be anywhere near as good as Matt, but he is that type.
"The focus for us now is Wycombe on Tuesday and no more. We have good players here and we have proved that today coming to the League leaders, we made them look very ordinary if I'm honest which bodes well."
