Alan Pardew hailed Saints’ 5-1 win over Walsall as “outstanding.”

The Saints boss saw his side bounce back from their disappointing goalless draw at Wycombe with their biggest win of the season.

The St Mary’s victory underlined Saints’ attacking potential and closed the gap on the play-offs to 17 points with two games in hand.

One of those is against sixth placed Huddersfield who visit St Mary’s on Tuesday night.

Pardew said: “It was an efficient performance – I thought we were outstanding.

“It was the best performance at home in terms of a complete performance but the Norwich game ran that close.

“There was no outstanding player, everybody was determined to show that we’re a good team.

“It’s something like 23 games where we’ve lost three, drawn five and won 14 or something like that and we’ve shown that.”

• After Pardew’s brief post match interview Saints fans reported seeing the manager leaving St Mary’s in a hurry before 5.15pm.

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