Saints boss Alan Pardew hailed the performance of Lee Barnard, whose two goals ended City's long run of home wins at 11. Barnard scored a goal in each half - his first since moving from Southend last month.

Saints boss Alan Pardew hailed the performance of Lee Barnard, whose two goals ended City's long run of home wins at 11. Barnard scored a goal in each half - his first since moving from Southend last month.

"I'm so pleased for Lee because our fans will know that he missed a big chance away at Brentford, missed a chance at home against Stockport so his settling in period hasn't been good," said Pardew, pictured. "He needed those goals today, and on the back of his hard work I thought he was man of the match today, he was brilliant for us, which is good news as we now have him and Rickie Lambert up front.

"When you bring in players in the January transfer window it can sometimes take them a while to settle in. Everyone has been here for a bit now, and we all know each other and we have a bit more quality on the pitch now. It's about a balance, and I actually think that the MK Dons match was the catalyst for us really. We were terrific that night and we took that into the Portsmouth match when we were so unlucky, but today we got our reward."

Pardew said Southampton knocked City out of their stride.

"People get bogged down with shapes and everything else, but it is about the attitude of mind, and our attitude of mind was to attack Norwich and knock them out of their stride a little," he said. "Until the sending off, which was harsh, they weren't really in the game, we were going along quite steadily, it affected us more than them I felt.

"We were inexperienced at times, and we were at the end because we should have won by three or four really, but I can't fault the players today they were very professional and gave a very good performance here."