JUBILANT Saints chairman Rupert Lowe today reflected on his club's magnificent FA Cup final appearance and insisted: "We must not become complacent or arrogant."

Financially, the FA Cup run has been worth millions and the added glamour of a place in the UEFA Cup is sure to make Southampton a more attractive destination than ever for possible transfer targets.

Long-term njuries to Marian Pahars and Agustin Delgado have left manager Gordon Strachan short of strikers and he has already indicated that is the one area of his squad he might want to boost.

Furthermore, the extra games associated with European football will undoubtedly place a fresh burden on what is already a small squad relative to other Premiership clubs enjoying a similar level of success.

But while Lowe pledged the extra revenue generated by the Cup would be used to strengthen all aspects of the club, he warned there would be no spending spree.

He said: "The key now is to keep our feet on the ground. We have seen other clubs in football achieve success and then go down.

"Football is a volatile business and we need to be aware of that.

"No club is invincible, we must not be complacent or arrogant, but continue to have a quiet belief in our own ability.

"Steady progress is what we have tried to achieve and I feel the club now is as strong and stable as it has even been."

He added: "Our fixed costs remain too high at the club, we have very expensive over-heads with the academy and the cost of running the stadium properly, but any new revenue is good.

"The more revenue we have, the more we can invest in improving all aspects of the club.

"Of course it's great to do well in the Cup, but the league is still our main business.

"If we can do well in that, it will give us even more momentum until the end of the season.

"We look forward to the next few matches, but everyone starts with a clean sheet again in August and we are very much aware of that."

Last summer Lowe correctly predicted that Europe was possible and now stresses that having achieved that ambition, Saints must never rest on their larels.

He said: "The UEFA Cup can be a two-edged sword. The early rounds are not that lucrative, it's not like the Champions League and you must achieve success early to make it to the later rounds.

"It can put extra stresses and strains on the club and it must be carefully managed and must not deflect from the league.

"But it will be great fun to play in Europe and this is a huge achievement for the club."

The appointment of Gordon Strachan as manager 18 months ago was criticised in some quarters, but Lowe has since been totally vindicated and he also paid tribute to the Scot.

"Full credit to Gordon and the players who did a thoroughly professional job," he said. "I believe that if people have set-backs it can make them stronger, not weaker. Gordon has managed the players brilliantly and taken them forward."

Peter Sharkey, the Daily Echo's weekly Business in Sport columnist, echoed Lowe's thoughts about the UEFA Cup.

"There's only £2.5m prize money available in the UEFA Cup and thatmainly goes to the teams who reach the last four," he explained.

"It's a world away from the Champions League. There you get a minimum £12m just for playing in the group stage. Even if you lose all six games you still get at least £12m."

Apart from gate receipts, Saints will make extra European money from selling the rights to show home matches to television. This season Liverpool made an estimated £750,000 from the BBC for showing their tie with Celtic.

The Glasgow club have done deals this season with both Channel 5 and the BBC. Sharkey said: "Southampton wouldn't get £750,000 per home game because Liverpool are a bigger name, but I'd be surprised if they didn't get around £500,000."

Safe Standing - Sports Minister Richard Caborn speaks to the Echo. See SPOTLIGHT.