Alan Pardew admitted Saints need to find a way to get wins on tricky pitches after their play-off hopes were dealt a blow as they were held to a goalless draw at Wycombe.

The Adams Park surface was far from ideal, having most recently been used for a rugby match, but Saints were not able to find a way through to grab the three points in a dismal match against League One’s second bottom side.

It was a similar story at Brentford, Millwall and Exeter recently where Saints battled away on tough pitches but only came away with a single point on each occasion.

Last night’s draw leaves Saints 19 points off the play-offs with 16 games left to go and needing a very special run to make to the top six.

Pardew said: “We haven’t really created enough and on the other games on these type of surfaces.

“Maybe we need to look at playing a different type of football on these type of surfaces.

“Wycombe made it very difficult – I think we caught them at a bad time with their tails up.

“They had good performance, especially with Betsy and Kelly who caused us a few problems, but it was nothing we shouldn’t have overcome to be honest."

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