Alan Pardew praised the battling qualities of Southampton after they stopped a winless run of three games with a gritty victory at Hartlepool.
“When you come away to Hartlepool one of the things you don’t need is the wind blowing down the length of the pitch which made a mockery of the game at times,” he told the Southern Daily Echo after their 3-1 win.
“I didn’t think we used the wind particularly well in the first half but they got a good goal, they worked it well and we were a goal behind.
“We showed great resilience, got a great goal ourselves from Adam Lallana again and then second half they couldn’t use the wind.
“The wind was very difficult to judge because it was swirling at times and we have to thank Adam for a brilliant goal to give us a leg up in the game."
Les Parry insists Tranmere have turned the corner after their win over Southend despite remaining rock bottom of the table.
Ian Goodison and Terry Gornell guided them to a 2-0 triumph over Southend and Tranmere’s caretaker manager hailed their performance. “That was our best performance of the season by far,” he told the Liverpool Daily Post.
“I was actually disappointed for the lads that we only won by a couple of goals. I felt we dominated the first half and had a lot of chances in the second. Every single player pulled his weight and gave a 100 per cent.
“The lads in the dressing room were quite quiet after the match because they were so tired.
We’ve been saying for some time that we needed to match a good performance with a good result so tonight has given us a double whammy of confidence.
“Southend are a big powerful side and we knew if we did not match them for effort and energy they would roll us over. As it was we more than matched them in that department.”
