Southampton produced an inspired display to dump Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 win on Wednesday night.
First-half strikes from Sekou Mara and Moussa Djenepo, along with an excellent defensive display sealed their passage into the semi-finals, where they will face high-flying Newcastle in a two-legged tie.
It was certainly the south-coast side’s best performance since Nathan Jones took over in November and the Saints faithful will hope there’s much more to come in the coming weeks.
The Southampton boss spoke to the media after the game about the performance and what’s hopefully to come from his team.
On the performance
The Welshman was delighted with what he saw from his side and he felt that the victory was much deserved.
“I’m really pleased with the performance. I thought we were excellent as a team. Right from start to finish, we were aggressive, we were organised and we went after the game.
“It wasn’t a smash and grab. We’ve got a lot of facets to our game.”
But despite the excellent night, Jones isn’t taking the victory for granted and he knows that there’s still a lot of work to be done in the near future.
“I hope this is a big statement. I’m not going to get carried away. We need time to change the direction of the club.”
On fans frustrations and critics
The 49-year-old’s tenure has been littered with jeers from the home support and doubts over whether he is good enough to manage at the Premier League level.
But this performance will definitely help his relationship with the supporters and he admits that he understands the feeling of the fans.
“I understand people’s frustrations, but we are building. We are on the way. This has to be the levels we play to now.
“It’s a start and another step in the right direction. At least I probably won’t be abused on the way home.
“I don’t know if I changed perceptions. Within 10 minutes of the Brighton game, I was inept.
Jones also responded to criticism from Havant & Waterlooville manager Paul Doswell, who said the Saints boss was ‘out of his depth’ earlier this week.
“The non-league manager criticised me the other day. It baffled me. I don’t speak about Havant & Waterlooville. I don’t speak about levels I don’t know about.”
On Drawing Newcastle in the semi-final
Next up for Southampton in the Carabao Cup is a tricky tie against a very impressive Newcastle.
Jones spoke to BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Sports about the semi-final test and his immediate reaction to it.
“Really tough. I watched the game here before my appointment.
“Eddie [Howe] has done a phenomenal job at Newcastle so it will be a tough, tough game but we have a wonderful match to look forward to here and then we go to St James’ Park, it is a semi-final, we have to enjoy it.”
Southampton’s immediate focus will now turn to league action and a crunch fixture against Everton on Saturday.
“I’m absolutely not dreaming [of Wembley]. I’ll be up until 3am watching Everton. We have a long day tomorrow. I’ll have about 20 seconds with a glass of wine and then reality hits.”