RORY DELAP hopes Saints' performance at Charlton last night will put people's minds at ease that everything at St Mary's is fine.

The Irish international midfielder came away disappointed that Saints couldn't turn their 0-0 draw into a win.

But he feels the showing the team gave will at least silence the doubters - for the time being.

He said: "We all know what's been said and the players haven't been happy about a lot of it.

"But it has been justified what's been said because only the players and the staff at the club know exactly what's going on.

"You've got to put out that the club's fine and the only way we can do that is go out on the pitch on a matchday and prove that. Sometimes, with a bad performance, you put doubt in people's mind.

"It's not on the players' minds or the coaching staff - performances like that can put the fans' minds at ease and the media as well."

Delap also believes his impressive partnership with David Prutton at The Valley will convince people they are able to play alongside each other in the centre of midfield.

"I know people might not think that we can play together because we're similar players," he remarked.

"But I think in this game, with the two lads on the wings that can create, and us in the middle doing the hard work and getting up and down the pitch, we showed we can," said Delap.

"You know what you are going to get from David every game and we both put in a good performance."

He added: "We're not really happy with the result.

"It was quite a disappointed changing room after the game, which is a good sign in one way, but we think we should have got all three points.

"We started really well and got them on the back foot, the crowd got on to them and we were the dominating team for the whole game.

"For five minutes after half-time we were a bit flat but then we managed to get our best chances in the second half and should have won."

Delap almost got the winner himself with an effort turned over the bar by his former international colleague Dean Kiley.

"He's made a few saves off me now," smiled an exasperated Delap. "It was a good save but I was glad to have got a few chances and get a couple on target.

"It would have been nice to have got the winner but as a team we had enough chances to get a winner."