Nigel Adkins has hailed his team’s momentum after they notched their fourth win in five League One outings.

Saints’ 3-1 win over Notts County at Meadow Lane made it just one defeat in eight and moved them to within one point of the League One play-off places.

Remarkably, they are just two away from the second automatic promotion spot.

The Saints boss might well like things to be a little more routine, but after seeing his side come from behind to win for the second game in a row he was just happy to collect the three points.

Adkins said: “I targeted this game to get three points and Tuesday (home to Dagenham).

“I’ve looked at the whole campaign and broken it into phases and games that we need to get points from and games that are always going to be challenging.

“Coming away from home, this was always going to be a tricky game but it was a game I wanted to win.

“Great credit to the players at half-time because the game wasn’t going our way.

“There is momentum now, one defeat in eight, which is important.

“With the team selection we tried to learn the lessons from the Huddersfield game to play further up the field.

“Did it work, or didn’t it work?

“At the end of the day we’re still striving to play a brand of football but we want to play winning football and great credit to the players because they’ve turned it around.

“It’s making sure we play football in the right areas at the right times and then players having the confidence to make the right decisions on the field of play.

“We are trying to give them a framework and at times you can see the framework’s there – the shape of the team is set up nicely to pass the ball in certain areas.

“The players just need to have that confidence to go and do it, and confidence is a big thing in football.”

Adkins made a forward change by giving Lee Barnard his first start since the October 2 win against Cherries, with Guly do Prado back on the bench.

“I wanted Barney in there so we played forward to start off with in their half of the pitch,” the boss explained.

“That was the idea and it makes for exciting football.”