Alan Pardew was delighted with the response that his team showed to hammer Bristol Rovers.

The manager felt the players concentrated their efforts on turning the game around despite suffering a blow midway through the first half.

"We were very disappointed to go one nil down because we were really on fire and we should have had the lead by then," he said. "We found ourselves one down, but didn't take our foot off the gas, and we didn't do that all night. Two really good Rickie Lambert goals, typical Rickie Lambert in that it was a header and then a free kick which was a really good strike, so we went in at half time with the score at 2-1.

"I just felt that we could just slow down a little bit in the final third and show a bit more quality. They certainly answered that call, in the second half we were just awesome, I don't think anyone could have lived with us, it was an outstanding display.

"It's difficult to pull out individuals but I'm going to," the gaffer continued, "because with Morgan we have been waiting for over a year for him to get a goal and he came up with perfect timing because it was a fantastic goal. It's cost Radhi £500 I've just been told because he thought he was never going to score.

"It was a good night for us, the fans were absolutely superb and the players need to take all the credit. Now we move onto the next game and it is all about that, we can't do anything about the other two teams, all we can do is keep winning and that is what we will do."

The win moves Saints above Rovers in the table to add more spice to the end of season run-in which is now gathering at a pace.

"There are a lot of twists and turns to come yet, a lot of twist and turns. Colchester got beaten tonight so we are closer to them and all we can do is win our games.

"If you look at our goal difference we are probably only second to Norwich, that's a fantastic testament to the team, they are having a real good go and you can't fault them in terms of their commitment and passion. The quality on the pitch tonight really was of the highest order, there aren't many Championship teams that could have coped with us tonight."