ALAN Pardew hailed Lee Barnard’s first goals for Saints and claimed it shows his January signings are settled in and ready to fire his side up the table.
Barnard, one of Pardew’s five transfer window captures last month, relieved the pressure on himself and his boss with a brace to sink leaders Norwich 2-0 at Carrow Road.
It was a strong team performance from Saints and one that Nicola Cortese would no doubt have enjoyed.
The chairman had criticised the league results after Saints’ 1-1 draw at Exeter a fortnight ago and said he was “looking forward” to Saints returning to winning ways at Norwich.
And against the odds, they did just that.
Not only did Saints shatter Norwich’s 11-match winning home run, they also ended their own poor record of three points from their last five away league matches.
The match was a rare chance for Pardew to have all his new faces available with the cup tied rule having meant so many changes in recent weeks.
Saints looked very strong as a result.
Pardew said: “We managed to field our strongest team – with the Cup games we have had I have had to mix it up a little bit but I picked what I felt was our strongest side and we performed admirably.
Full story in today's Daily Echo
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