Martin hails “professional” performance
After Saints extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 23 games following victory at Rotherham, manager Russell Martin hailed a “professional” performance from his side.
The visitors started in red-hot fashion as Jan Bednarek marked his 200th appearance for the club with a headed goal after just four minutes.
A dominant opening 45 minutes was rewarded with a 15th goal of the season for Adam Armstrong, a cushion that Saints held onto to move up to second in the Sky Bet Championship.
“Really professional performance, a really good performance,” Martin began. “Some big chances, some good saves from their goalkeeper. A really difficult pitch, a team fighting for their lives giving everything they’ve got.
“To do what we did on that pitch takes a lot of love and care from the players and with the detail on the ball, they showed a lot of love for each other today with the ball, [I’m] really proud of them.
“They kept running, so aggressive regaining the ball and should have scored a couple more goals, but I’m really delighted. Brilliant following that whole end behind the goal and it’s been a good day for us.”
Having leapfrogged both Ipswich and Leeds to move up into the automatic promotion spots, Martin expressed caution at getting too carried away.
“Nice to be in there at the moment. There is a long, long way to go so I’m not going to get too caught up in that. We have to take care of ourselves, we have done that today in what is a difficult game and now we have Tuesday to focus on in the cup and we have to try and keep everyone fit and ready.
“We had Sam Edozie on the bench today, great that we didn’t need to put him out there, so we can really use the next week to get him really ready, the same as Kamaldeen [Sulemana], so we’re going to have even more options with Breezy [James Bree] on the way back too, so fingers crossed we can keep this group together, keep them fit and keep them hungry and if we do we’ve got a brilliant chance.”
