Saints midfielder Rory Delap has called on his teammates to prove last week's poor display against Manchester City was a one-off.

The Republic of Ireland international admitted that he couldn't understand why things had gone so wrong in the 2-0 St Mary's defeat but that it was out of character and it would be put right against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium tomorrow.

He said: "Everyone knows it was poor last week and we've just got to go out now and prove that was a one-off.

"There just seemed to be nothing there at any time in the match and it's one of those games where I can't remember much about it because it was that bad.

"We pride ourselves on playing some good football and hard working football and although the hard work was there, for once they worked harder than us and that showed and they played better than us."

He added: "It's been a hard week but we knew that anyway and probably needed it and hopefully that will show on Saturday.

"We've been working on basics as it seemed we had forgotten what we had to do and worked hard on the defence, midfield and up front and we've got to show we learnt from that this week and put it into practise."

Delap thinks it will be a tough test against Bolton tomorrow with the Trotters being a tough nut to crack at the back and Saints having had troubles breaking sides down this season.

The £4m record signing again reiterated his desire to start scoring and said: "I've seen them a couple of times on TV and they are hard to break down and hard to beat and they have players in their side who can go and nick a goal as well but we need to go and win and get a good win.

"I think their defence is good and if you look at their record then not many teams have beaten them well and they tend to win a few by the odd goal.

"They have Kevin Davies playing for them at the moment and we know all about him and on his day he's a great player and we've got to watch for that.

"Bolton will be hard to break down and that's what we've struggled with this season. It's going to be a hard test for us."