Jones on 'important' win
Nathan Jones admitted Southampton’s Emirates FA Cup victory over Blackpool puts his side in good stead with a number of important fixtures approaching in both league and cup competition.
The boss reflected on a largely positive performance from the Saints, who secured their place in the fifth round of the competition.
“I’m happy that we’re through,” admitted the boss. “For 60 odd minutes really, really happy. It’s difficult. There’s a lot of players there that haven’t played regularly.
“We made eight changes. Bit more disjointed than we would have liked. I thought we controlled the game. It was 2-0 and with a little bit more quality we would have been further ahead.
“We created our own problems and that’s why at the end it was a bit tighter than what it was. We do silly things and when we do silly things they cost us because everything is costing us at the minute.
“You have to treat the competition with respect. People like Joe Aribo haven’t played much, Ainsley, Mislav hasn’t played so there’s a lot of players that hadn’t played a lot of minutes out there so they needed that.
“It’s disjointed. It’s not a regular flow in terms of playing together but we believe we have a squad capable of doing that."
Saints’ goal scorer came from an unlikely source at St Mary’s, with Romain Perraud finding the back of the net twice on a frosty afternoon in SO14.
“Romain’s in and around everything we do all the time. We’ve had a lot of games lately. Romain played at Palace the other day, he’s played a lot of games for us.
“We try to pick the right teams for the right games and that’s what it is. So, Romain’s done himself no harm but we know what he can do, it’s not like he surprised us in any other way.
“We have a few technicians. Mislav’s a technician, obviously a left footer with Romain and then we’ve just signed James Bree so we’ve got some real competition in terms of that.
“It’s just another win. That’s the important thing. We’ve got to be used to winning because as a club we haven’t been used to winning for a while.
“That’s the cup and that’s the beauty of this country. The cup games are tough. Lincoln, made it really tough and sat in and made it really difficult. [Blackpool] tonight sat in for long periods and really came out and went for it with size and aggression when we were two up.
“I’m happy and I just think it’s a win that adds a little bit. A little bit of confidence. A little bit of momentum. It should stand us in good stead.”
