Southampton 2 - 0 Newcastle United: Saints out of drop zone

Scorers: Southampton - Lallana (34), Ramirez (60)

Midfielder Adam Lallana opened the scoring for the home side in the 34th minute when he turned a pass from Gaston Ramirez into the bottom left corner of the Newcastle net. Ramirez himself doubled the advantage from close range in the 60th minute to secure the win over former Saints manager Alan Pardew’s side. The victory lifts Southampton out of the relegation zone and into 17th place with 11 points.

After a miserable start to the season, the newly-promoted Saints are beginning to find their feet in the top flight and manager Nigel Adkins said: “It was probably a better performance than last week [when they won at QPR].

“There was a good momentum about us and we carried that on today. It was a good performance. We scored two, but could have scored some more. The crowd were great, the players were great and we got a clean sheet.

“We’ve been progressing all the way through. Last week I spoke about a growing maturity about the group of players and I think we’re progressing well. Our confidence has been good since the start of pre-season but you’ve got to get yourself ready as quickly as possible to reach the level the Premier League is at. The players are doing that and doing that very well at this moment in time.

“We know we’re in the hardest, toughest and most desirable league to be in.”