Nigel Adkins: 'We deserved to win'

Southampton manager Nigel Adkins has claimed that his side deserved their 1-0 win over Reading this afternoon.

The Saints moved out of the relegation zone courtesy of Jason Puncheon's second-half strike and Adkins was particularly happy at beating a fellow relegation candidate.

Adkins praised his side's togetherness, but admitted that he would have liked to have seen them score more goals.

"It is a good three points for us. It is important to win our home games, especially against the teams close to us in the league. I thought we thoroughly deserved the victory today and, in fact, I would have liked us to have scored some more goals from the opportunities we created," said Adkins.

"All-in-all, we've got to be happy with the clean sheet and three points. The players stepped up to the mark. There might be talk [of pressure] on the outside, but the players deserve all the credit.

"They work really hard on the training ground and there is a great togetherness about them. They've gone out and put on a very good performance. I think if we can keep concentrating on our performances and what we want to do, we give ourselves an opportunity to go and win."

Southampton moved up to 15th in the table with the three points, while opponents Reading remain in 19th place.