Mark Hughes feels Saints’ defensive solidarity will give them a platform to start scoring more goals moving forward, following a 0-0 draw with Newcastle United in the Premier League.
Despite huge frustration at another game that his side dominated but failed to convert their chances in, a successive clean sheet was a positive after some hard work on the training ground.
“We take what we’ve taken in the end, which is a point and another clean sheet. It’s back to back clean sheets which reinforces our feeling that defensively we’re in a better shape than we have been,” Hughes said.
“That will help us and give us confidence at the top end of the pitch to really go for teams because we should know that we have got good defensive capabilities.
“In the second-half, Jack and Wesley stopped things at source and were prepared to step in and start to ask questions with their passes to set off attacks in the opposition half. We need that from them as well.
“Overall, there were a number of things I was pleased with but clearly at the top end of the pitch we need to start converting chances.”