Gordon Strachan guided Saints to fourth place in the Premiership and hailed summer signings Kevin Phillips and Graeme Le Saux.

The Saints boss saw his side turn over Spurs and former manager Glenn Hoddle 3-1 at White Hart Lane to make it three wins in a row and six games undefeated.

That equals Saints' best ever start to a top flight season in 1983/84 when they eventually finished second.

James Beattie got two and Kevin Phillips, with a little help from Dean Richards, the other.

It prompted Strachan to rave: "Our two strikers were absolutely fantastic - apart from the first two minutes when they were asleep, but after that they were excellent.

"The two of them together were fantastic.

"I know that James scored the goals but Kevin was just phenomenal and he might have got a couple as well.

"At the moment he is helping Beatts to score goals, just like Brett Ormerod did in a different way last year.

"Brett was all enthusiasm, running about the pitch and James didn't have to move from the centre.

"But you get as many chances as that now with Kevin being able to hold on to the ball then releasing it wide so we can cross it, so there are two different ways of feeding Beatts."

Beattie's double took his phenomenal scoring record to six in six games so far this season.

But, despite the win, Strachan was not completely satisfied with the performance or the fact Saints broke their run of four consecutive clean sheets with Fredi Kanoute's second half strike the first goal they had conceded for 501 minutes.

"We were a bit edgy," said Strachan. "We tried to play too quickly and too much one touch stuff when we could have been a bit braver on the ball."

Only big guns Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal now lie above Saints in the table and Strachan also paid tribute to Graeme Le Saux's contribution since his summer arrival.

"Graeme impressed the guys the first time he walked through the door.

"He has a presence in the dressing room which is good and so has Kevin Phillips.

"You can see it in everything, the way they conduct themselves on the pitch, at the training ground, the way they dress - everything.

"My players know they can look to them for a bit of help now.

"After the FA Cup Final I said to the chairman that I wanted to take some of the pressure of the players we had.

"I didn't want the same guys who have been going through the motions and doing it for the past couple of years to have to baby-sit kids or anything like that.

"What I was hoping to bring in were people who the other players could look to and think 'he can help me' and with those two I have certainly done that.

"You saw that on Saturday.

"Maybe in the past we might have panicked a bit, especially at times in the second-half.

"But these are players who have been there before and can handle the mental side.

"They are used to winning games and you could see that with their confidence on the ball. Their presence helped us."