Stephens: We've set our standard now

A week on from a frustrating point at home, Saints raced out the blocks in the clash between two of the league's promotion hopefuls, and found themselves two goals ahead inside ten minutes thanks to Kuryu Matsuki and a James Bree stunner.

Former Saint Kyle Walker-Peters pulled a goal back before Lewis Dobbin extended the advantage before the break.

To a man, Saints held firmld to stave off waves of West Ham pressure and, despite some stoppage time nerves from Tomáš Souček's late goal, the three points return to Hampshire after resolute defending and some incredible Daniel Peretz saves.

"It's a big win." said Stephens, "obviously we were disappointed last week with the nil-nil at home and we wanted to come here and prove a point. We've set our standard now.

"I think in the first half I thought we were outstanding, we played some really good football, aught them by surprise and were fairly in control for the game."

"We knew that they were going to have spells at times, they've got some brilliant players individually and we knew that we'd have had to defend at times and I thought we did that on the whole pretty well as a team. Obviously, they score a really good goal late on which makes it probably a little bit more nervy than it should have been, but we dug in really well.

"Daniel made a few fantastic saves, he was outstanding today, I'm really proud of the lads to come here and play the way we did, especially in the first half and yeah, it feels like a big result.

"Last year we went on a long, unbeaten run and obviously we started this season a little bit hit and miss, we had some brilliant performances and then some not-so-great performances so it's just about getting into that rhythm, building momentum.

"We know we're strong as a group, we know we're going to score goals, we've got some brilliant players in the squad that can score at any time so when we do that, it's important that we lock it up at the back. Obviously, we didn't do that brilliantly well today, but we've done it enough so yeah, really, really, really pleased."

On the travelling Saints support in the capital, Stephens added "they were outstanding I thought, again."

"It's been terrible weather the last couple of days, probably wouldn't have been ideal conditions to travel in and certainly wouldn't have been ideal conditions to watch that game, especially the ones down the bottom so it's nice to give them something to go home with because I'm pretty sure they'll be soaked through.

"Unbelievable support as always and I'm delighted to give them something to go home with."