Alan Pardew believes the last gasp draw at Brighton keeps the momentum going in Saints' end of season run-in.

His side forced a 2-2 draw at the Withdean and the manager praised the players for keeping to their task throughout the ninety minutes.

"Things weren't falling for us and they defended really well plus their goalkeeper made two or three decent saves but I thought it was a brilliant effort from my players and I can't fault them," he said.

"We looked at this one as being perhaps the toughest of our run-in so the momentum is important and we've kept that by not getting beat and we've got to take that now into two home games.

"We played good opposition today who played with their tails up but I still felt that we bossed the game. Unfortunately we fell behind at a time when I felt that we didn't deserve to be.

"Obviously we wanted to win, but it was a really tough game. Brighton are playing well at the minute and I thought that it was a competitive game and we bossed it and we got ourselves an equaliser after not the best start.

"The first fifteen minutes were probably the worst part of the game for us but we played well, got an equaliser and bossed the second half. They got an absolute worldy goal out of the top drawer and I don't think that we expected it to be honest perhaps you don't expect it at this level and it undid us.

"We had to make changes just to mix it up. We got another equaliser but just ran out of time."

The gaffer was pleased with the impact of his substitutions and had no regrets about the starting eleven that he named on the back of Sunday's success.

"I had to pick a side that I thought was going to cope with this terrain and the subs did well when they came on to give us a little boost.

"When the goal went in there was no option but to re-organise ourselves. We didn't have David Connolly available unfortunately for personal reasons but I couldn't fault the attitude and application of both teams, it was a really tough game.

"On paper it was as tough a game as any we've got left so we'll take a point and we know that we've got to win most of our games so you wouldn't bet against us winning the next two home games.

"We knew there'd be a slip up in us and maybe there's room for one more we would love to have won here but it wasn't to be."