CHARLIE Austin admits it’s a “delight to see” Saints playing attacking football this season, following his last-gasp penalty winner in the five-goal thriller against West Ham at St Mary’s on Saturday.

The 3-2 victory ended a club-record 556 minutes without a home goal and marked Mauricio Pellegrino’s first triumph as boss.

Austin came on as a late substitute with fellow forward Shane Long as Pellegrino threw his final dice in an attempt to bag all three points against ten-man Hammers, who had Marko Arvautovic sent off in the first half.

Asked what his manager’s instructions were when he was introduced in the 80th minute, the 28-year-old said: “Go and get the winner, that's all it was!

“No, it just shows we are going to try and play attacking football this year and as a striker that is a delight to see. We worked hard today and we deserved the win.”

The 93rd minute spot kick was won by Maya Yoshida after he was adjudged to have been shoved by Pablo Zabeleta by referee Lee Mason.

Austin was the man tasked with despatching the high-pressure penalty – so were there any nerves?

“I'm professional, I know what I'm doing,” he said, confidently. “Doesn't matter if it is the first minute or last minute. I have confidence in my ability to take the penalties.

“I knew what I was doing and the ball was only going in one place.”

He added: “I sing in front of the lads, 30 people when I go and do my initiation, that's more scary than taking a penalty in the last minute.”

The eventful Hammers win also saw rival striker Manolo Gabbiadini net his first goal of the season, scoring Saints’ opener from a narrow angle on 11 minutes.

Austin is relishing the competition with the Italian.

“Every football club has competition and it is only healthy competition,” he said. “He is only going to drive me on to be better and I will hopefully do the same for him.

“I was delighted for him when he scored and he was delighted for me when I scored at the end and that just shows the team spirit we have got this season which is important.

“I don't think we had it much last year but we are going in the right direction this year definitely.”

The £4m striker concedes that under Claude Puel towards the end of the campaign, the dressing room went markedly quiet.

“At the back end of last year, team spirit just dwindled off a little bit because we weren't getting the right results. Wins makes big team spirit,” he explained.

“Yeah of course [it went quiet] because wins bring out character and we have got a lot of character, big, big players in our dressing room and that result is definitely going to spur us on,” he added.