Despite his relative youth, manager Mark Hughes has praised the maturity and calming influence of rookie stopper Angus Gunn after his heroics between the sticks during last night's penalty shoot-out against Everton.
The 22-year-old denied Theo Walcott from the spot, allowing Cédric to seal the tie for Saints, but Hughes was particularly pleased with Gunn's all-round display, having been called into action a number of times during the normal 90.
"We made changes, and there were a number of things I wanted to look at," the manager began.
"Each and every one of the changes were ready to compete - Angus in particular did really well.
"Excellent in the penalty shoot-out and the one on one save from [Ademola] Lookman was also important. We needed his calmness, I thought he gave us a presence at the back.
"He wasn't phased by anything in front of him, and that helped the guys.
"It is important to win games. We've performed okay up until now, but you have to back it up with results and we did that against Everton."