Nigel Adkins heaped praise on the Saints fans after seeing his players end an unwanted record.

Going into the game, Saints had lost every single match this season in which they had fallen behind.

Even worse, they had never scored in those seven games – Plymouth, Rochdale, Swindon, MK Dons and Huddersfield in the league and Bolton (League Cup) and Swindon (JPT) in cup action, But Adkins saw his side end that run to grab a victory against Oldham at St Mary’s to make it three home league wins in a row.

Saints are starting to get a bit of consistency into their results which is all part of the Adkins masterplan.

“What we’re trying to do is create a culture through the week that we can work hard, train, develop, learn things but on a Saturday it’s about winning because it hurts when you lose,” he enthused.

“We have one objective which is to get promoted – everyone has got to work very hard and pull together in the same direction to make sure that is achieved.

“We have won at home and that’s the important thing.

“The supporters got behind the lads and that’s very important.

“We can make it intimidating for the opposition but not too anxious for the players – because if things aren’t going your way a pass can go astray and that frustration can go from the stadium to the players on the pitch.

“We’ve got to try and control that as best as possible, keep a smile on our face, keep striving on and endeavour to win games however we can.”

Saints did have to overcome challenges against Oldham – firstly bouncing back after going behind and then seeing off some late pressure.

“It didn’t change anything – the words that were going to be said were said but obviously it was beneficial we got ourselves back in the game with a good set play,” said Adkins of his half-time team talk which was delivered moments after Jose Fonte had equalised.

“We should have scored several more goals in the first half.”

He added: “We knew towards the end of the game the big centre half would probably get thrown up front so they would have a bit of armoury up there to throw the ball forward and we had to deal with that.

“Kelvin did what he was supposed to do and make saves.

“Good keepers concentrate throughout games.”