GRAEME LE SAUX scored his first goal in a Saints shirt last night - but says he and James Beattie will NOT now be arguing over who takes the free-kicks.

Beattie has scored twice this season from dead-ball situations and Le Saux rounded off Saints' 3-0 win in the Carling Cup third round against Bristol City with a deflected free-kick.

The former England star said: "It's really a case of where the ball is. If the ball is in the right position for a right-footed player James will take it.

"Last night was a good position for me to take the free-kick. It was a little bit wide for James who has obviously been very accurate throughout the season with his free-kicks.

"So it was just a case of me getting a firm strike on it. I will be interested to see where it was going if it hadn't taken a deflection because it felt good off my boot.

"The deflection kept the pace on it and wrong-footed the keeper.

"I hope no one tries to take it away from me because goals are good for my confidence and they don't happen too often - I will be able to dine out on that for a while!"

Le Saux felt Saints' work-rate eventually told and he was delighted with the team's seventh clean sheet from 13 matches.

He said: "We looked after ourselves very well as a back five. We kept the ball out of our box, we kept a good line, we work hard on squeezing our line up.

"We felt the longer the game went on, the harder we worked, the more tired they would become and all of those things count in games like this.

"They created chances, although they were more outside the box than inside.

"They had some long-range efforts and although you don't want people shooting at your goal, it's better to keep them from outside the box.

"Both our goalkeepers are in very good form so unless it is a ferocious strike you expect Antti and Jonah to stop them. They both did that well when called upon.

"We all defended quite solidly and that gave us the basis again to go on and get the win."

City put Saints on the back foot at times early on and Le Saux admitted they struggled to find their rhythm.

He said: "It was a good result, though we could have got the ball moving a bit quicker.

"Our pass completion could have been better.

"But we have to give them a lot of credit as well. They worked hard and closed us down very quickly in the first half.

"That hurried us and forced us into some uncharacteristic errors, but we kept going and another clean-sheet is fantastic."

Le Saux also paid tribute to Saints' travelling support, adding: "The fans were fantastic, we were all lifted when we went out on the pitch and saw the support out there.

"They are a great advert for the club."