Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino declared his satisfaction at his side’s performance following their 1-1 draw at Sunderland.
Substitute Jason Puncheon earned Southampton a valuable point at the Stadium of Light in the battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League as he cancelled out Phil Bardsley’s opener.
Pochettino was quick to praise the resilience of his players after watching them go five points clear of the bottom three ahead of the final week of the season.
“We’re very happy, the performance of the team has been enormous,” said Pochettino.
“I think overall we had a very good game and we carried the weight of the game we dominated for large phases of the game and we created the best chances as well.”
Puncheon came off the bench to rescue a point for Pochettino’s side after they spurned a host of decent opportunities throughout the game.
Pochettino has admitted that wastefulness in the final third is an area of his team’s game that needs to be worked on.
“In the last few games we’ve played similarly to how we performed (against Sunderland), we have performed well but have not been able to convert that into goals,” added Pochettino.
“But that goes to show that the experience my players had in their first season in the Premier League was important, its a very demanding league it’s very tough so you have to be mentally prepared you have to be physically prepared especially in the last 10 games of the season.
“I think the way we were playing is the path that we want to be on, that is how we want to be playing in the future, but its clear that we need to be a lot more clinical in front of goal, we need to be incisive so that’s what we need to work on.”
The result edged Southampton away from the relegation zone, but Pochettino has insisted that his team cannot afford to relax going into next weekend’s home clash with Stoke.
“We still have another game to play,” he said. “We want to win that game and we want to get as high as possible in the table.
“In football everything happens very quickly and we will definitely be planning for next season very soon.”
The stalemate leaves Sunderland one place
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and four points above Wigan, who currently occupy the remaining relegation spot and have two games left to play.
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and four points above Wigan, who currently occupy the remaining relegation spot and have two games left to play.
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