Mauricio Pochettino hailed his “amazing” Saints after they hammered Newcastle 4-0 at St Mary’s.

The England World Cup hopefuls led the way as Jay Rodriguez, Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana shared the goals between them.

Pochettino was understandably delighted by what he saw and praised his side.

“I am very happy,” he smiled.

“The performance was amazing.

“I am very happy for the players and very happy for the supporters.

“We had an amazing performance and not just the final result but the way that we played was outstanding.”

With England assistant manager Ray Lewington watching from the stands the game only further enhanced the World Cup claims of his stars.

“It’s clear that for the three English players that we have here at Southampton it is very good to maintain those high standards they have shown over the season,” said Pochettino.

“It’s only going to increase their chances of going to Brazil so it’s very good for them.

“It’s very good for us as well. We keep on improving as a team and we are delighting our fans with these amazing home performances.”

He added: “I had two clear feelings in the first half – I was very happy overall because we were playing fantastically well but I was very angry because we were being so wasteful.

“I think actually the goal came with the 11th chance that we created.

“In the end we got a 4-0 and made a hero out of the opposition keeper and that really shows what happened.”