Nigel Adkins believes the key to his side’s victory over Shrewsbury was the determination of the team and the crowd not to get frustrated as they searched for 90 minutes to find a goal.

Saints defeated their League Two opponents 2-0in front of just over 10,000 fans at St Mary’s to book a place in Sunday’s FA Cup second round draw but it took until injury time at the end of the game before David Connolly broke the deadlock with his first touch.

Adam Lallana added a second a minute later to secure the result and ensure that a replay was avoided.

Adkins said: “We dominated the game in terms of possession but great credit to Shrewsbury – they’re a good side and you can see why they’re at the top of the division they’re in.

“There was a calmness about them that made it frustrating for us but great credit to our players because they didn’t become frustrated.

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“We had a game plan to keep passing the ball, to move it about, to get it wide and create opportunities and I think we’ve gone and done that though there are things we can work on.

“Great credit to our supporters as well because there’s times in a game when it could become frustrating but you could hear them singing and getting behind the players and it makes a massive difference and it’s very pleasing.

“We’re set out to win the game of football and we’ve done that 2-0 and kept a clean sheet.

“When we analyse the game there are things that are very good and things we can improve on.

“We look at the stats and there were a lot of corners for one that we’ve got to score from but there was great defending from Shrewsbury and let’s not hide from that fact and give them a lot of credit.”