Bednarek: We push each other forward

The Polish centre-back became a double centurion along with teammate Stuart Armstrong at the AESSEAL New York Stadium, as Saints confidently marched to another three points in the SkyBet Championship.

It was Bednarek who got the game off to the perfect start after just four minutes when he directed a header back through a crowded penalty area to open the scoring.

Adam Armstrong doubled the lead with his 15th goal of the season, thanks to an excellent assist from Ryan Fraser, as Saints held their 2-0 half-time lead until the end.

"I think that was a tricky game because they have a new manager here. Bad pitch, you know, tricky game for us, but I think we were very professional and came to the game with real commitment, real courage to play and at the end of the day we have three points," Bednarek summarised.

"I think [we had] full control of the game, really good performance and I think that's it. We just need to recover now, forget about the game and focus on the next task."

"Hopefully, we can chase Leicester, we can stay in the top two. That's our target, but as a team, as a group, we are not satisfied with that.

"We want more, we know we can be better, so I think that's the best sign of us that we still want more. We're not satisfied and we are trying to improve as much as we can."

Bednarek reiterated that complete focus when asked about his personal achievement, only pausing briefly to acknowledge his milestone match.

"It's good to celebrate this 200th appearance with a goal, it's a great achievement for me. I never thought about it in this way nearly seven years ago when I came here.

"I'm happy that I helped the team and that's most important. I think it's nice, but I want more. I want to bring back Southampton to the Premier League and that's the target for the season."

"I was expecting someone smashing me in front of the goal, but luckily no one came! I just headed the ball to the goal, saw where the space in the goal was and just headed there.

"Good goal, I'm happy to help the team, happy to score set-pieces. That's important that we're not only good at our box, but also we can be a threat in opposition box in the set-piece."

On the development of the side throughout the campaign under Russell Martin, Bednarek added, "at the beginning of the season I would say set-pieces were our weakness, but now it's become a strength. Like I said, we always want to improve and we can see in this part of the game we are getting better as well."

"I think [it was a] rough start for us, a new system, new way of playing, new philosophy but I think we all fell in love with it. We are a really good group of people that want to enjoy football and feel well between each other."

"The atmosphere inside the team is great. We push each other forward, we want more, we want to be in the top two on the 4th May and that's most important."