Charlton boss Alan Curbishley hopes his side can emulate Saints' success next season and said he believes Gordon Strachan's men can beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final.

The Addicks manager, speaking after his team's 2-1 win against Saints at The Valley, was full of praise for the way Strachan and his backroom staff have got their side into the top half of the table and the showpiece final.

And Curbishley, rated along with Strachan as one of the best young managers in the league, thinks Saints can upset the odds against Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium next month.

He said: "Southampton can beat Arsenal because it's an FA Cup final and it's always built up to be a favourite and an underdog but the result doesn't always work out that way.

"Look at last time they were in the final and they beat Manchester United, that goes to show they can win it and they were massive underdogs then.

"On the day who knows what position Arsenal will be in by the time they get to Cardiff in terms of players available - Arsenal have got some massive games coming up.

"But Gordon and his staff have done extremely well and we can look up at them and think that we want to do that ourselves next year.

"To be in the top ten and the cup final is fantastic."

Speaking of the game, in which Curbishley, left, had five centre halves unavailable through injury, he added: "It was heroic stuff, from Bartlett back to Dean Kiely. They gave everything they had and deserved the result.

"After what we've been through over the last few weeks, we badly needed a result and great credit to the players.

"We had five centre halves out. In our past two home games we have been torn to pieces defensively and I wasn't coming clean with injury situation - Mark Fish and Richard Rufus were both playing with injuries.

"I asked Luke Young if he was comfortable with playing in the centre - he's played there before for Spurs. The only other choice would have been Paul Konchesky or the young boy Osei Sankofa.

"There was a great goal from Kevin Lisbie who I asked to play wide right today because of the injury problems and Kishishev I asked to play right-back.

"They all dug in - I'm really pleased for them. This game has definitely given us a lift."

The win lifted Curbishley's side above Saints into ninth place in the table but he admitted that his team - along with many others - started the season just looking to survive.

"Finishing out of that bottom three was the main brief at the start of the season.

"I know that people have been talking about us after what's happened in the past few weeks, but no one's switched off - we've just played badly and we've been hit by injuries," he said.

"Wherever we finish up now it's been another great season. We survived ten games ago and the way we've disappointed since leaves a sour taste for everybody.

"Our goal this year was - and I think there is fourteen other clubs that shared this goal - to stay up because of the finances and everything else.

"Obviously we see ourselves as an established side and I'd like to think that we can compete in this league and if we can be a top ten club this year that will be fantastic.

"Two years ago we finished ninth, last year we drifted away and finished fourteenth.

"I'd like to finish in the top ten this year and when you consider that we are probably third from bottom in wages and transfer budget, that's a great result for the club.

"I know the positions I want to go out and strengthen in the summer and hopefully we can do that because it's very dangerous to stand still in the Premiership."