Ronald Koeman hailed his “amazing” match winner Victor Wanyama after the midfielder drove Saints to victory at Hull.

The Kenyan played a pivotal role in Saints’ 1-0 victory at the KC Stadium in arguably his best performance since joining the club just over a year ago.

Wanyama produced a superb 40 yard finish after just three minutes to score what proved to be the only goal of the game.

But more than that he totally dominated the midfield area and, along with Morgan Schneiderlin, provided vital protection to the back four who came under immense pressure in the first half.

A happy Koeman said: “He was fantastic. The goal was amazing but how he played in everything in the midfield – he was strong, he was winning the battles, he was good on the ball, we had good position play.

“It’s important and it’s fantastic to have those kind of players.

“Now Jack Cork was not playing and we have more options in the midfield and we need that in a long tough season.”

Saints have shown character and determination to grind out three wins in a week, including back-to-back away games against Stoke and Hull which required them to stay away at St George’s Park in between.

“That was a different win than for example against Sunderland at home,” admitted Koeman.

“It (Sunderland) was mostly about good football, creating opportunities.

“These three wins in a row is not only on a football way but in a good organisation way and a spirit way and keep fighting until the last second and until the last second to act really as a team and that’s the most important what we did this week.”

Video courtesy of Southampton FC's YouTube channel

The Saints boss confessed that he is taken aback by just how incredibly his side have started this season but believes the amount of training time they have has contributed to their success.

“Surprised a little bit yes of course about the points now that we have but not surprised about the quality in the team because we have good players,” he said.

“We work hard to have a good organisation in the team because clean sheets bring points and it’s important to have that in the team.

“Only five goals we received until now and that’s one of the key to be successful in the results until now.”

He added: “We don’t play in Europe, we have a lot of time to have training sessions during the week and that gives more time to develop the players and to develop the team.

“That’s good because we like to continue what they did last season, we like to continue that, not to be a club one season up and the next two seasons down in the table.

“We like to continue because that’s the ambition of the club, that’s my ambition and it’s the ambition of the players.”