Alan Pardew was a proud man after seeing his Saints side book their place at a major Wembley final.

Saints defeated MK Dons 3-1 at St Mary’s last night to give them a 4-1 aggregate victory and seal a spot in the final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in what will be the club’s first Wembley appearance for 18 years.

And after the game Pardew was delighted with the result.

He said: “We’re proud.

“This is a special night.

“I didn’t think a night like this would come so soon in the season – you only get a night like this with a big FA Cup game or a play-off game.

“They deserve their day out at Wembley, as do the players who have worked incredibly hard in this competition, let alone the others, to get to the final.

“We have three competitions and we are trying to achieve something.”

Pardew had come under pressure to improve Saints’ league results in the form of a statement issued by executive chairman Nicola Cortese in the build-up to the Dons game .

But the Saints boss defended his focus on the cups as well.

In his programme notes, he said he had prioritised the cups because of the ten point deduction.

Cortese had described the league as the “top, top priority.”

After the game Pardew commented: “I felt it would be important for the spirit of everybody we did well in the cups.

“We’ve only been beaten in one cup game and that was Birmingham (in the Carling Cup last August) and I felt they were quite fortunate that night.

“We have slipped a little in the league recently with draws and that’s disappointing and we need to get back on that.

“We have another cup game to play now and it’s a huge game for this county, for us, for Southampton people.”

He added: “The only way you can really grow as a club is to go up. We are very much focussed on the league but we have a squad big enough to cope with the cups.

“My job is try and get the right balance between the league campaign and these cup campaigns.

“Unfortunately in the league we’ve slipped up a little bit but we’ve drawn games rather than lost them.

“It’s very frustrating but we hope to put that right.”

All eyes now turn to Saturday and the FA Cup fifth round clash with arch rivals Portsmouth at St Mary’s.

“We can sing ‘we’re going to Wembley’ even if we’re losing and that’s something,” smiled Pardew.

“It will be a cracking game.

“They are having a tough time Portsmouth and we are very much aware of the pain that they’re going through.

“The staff here have been through administration.

“I wasn’t here at that time but they suffered and I feel for Portsmouth, I really do, but there will be no sympathy from our part on Saturday.

“We will try and beat them and get to the quarter-final –we are a few games from Wembley in this competition as well.”

l Rickie Lambert said the Saints fans at St Mary’s last night generated the best atmosphere he has ever played in.

“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” he said. “I am trying to think of a better atmosphere. For me personally it was brilliant.”

Lambert has played at Wembley before and can’t wait for his return.

“There was a couple (of teammates) asking before the game what it’s like,” he said. “It’s an experience you don’t want to miss. I feel lucky to be going there again.”