GEORGE Burley might have been "asking too much" of Kenwyne Jones and Bradley Wright-Phillips to repeat their Wolves heroics against Hull.

The two youngsters had both scored to give Saints a much-needed 2-0 win at St Mary's three days earlier.

But both of them fired a blank against struggling Hull at the weekend.

"The strikers worked hard on Wednesday and I felt that told a little bit," said Burley.

"Maybe it was asking too much for them to succeed twice in four days.

"But we had six or seven half chances and you're looking to take one of them."

There was frustration amongst the 20,000 fans at St Mary's who have seen their side - so highly fancied for promotion back following Burley's summer spending spree - score just eight times in eight home league matches this season.

Only Hull and Leeds - two teams in the relegation zone - have scored less at home among Championship teams this season.

In contrast, Saints have only conceded three in eight games at home - two of which were down to Kelvin Davis errors. Only Torquay, who haven't conceded at all in nine League Two games, have a better defensive home record outside of the Premiership.

Despite the lack of goals, Burley was urging patience.

And he remains confident his side can bag themselves a top six finish having only lost one of those eight home league games.

"It's going to be a long season and we've got to battle right to the end," said Burley.

"Our aim was to finish in the top six and we can certainly do that.

"If Hull play that way away from home for the rest of the season they're not going to be easy because they had a lot of players behind the ball.

"We have a young team, some it was the second game in a few days, and we did well."

More Saints v Hull reaction, reports and pictures in today's Daily Echo Ricardo Fuller goes in search of his fifth Stoke goal in seven league games in tonight's Sky-televised clash with Coventry.

Another former Saint, Matt Oakley, was on target at the weekend as Derby came from behind to beat lofty West Brom 2-1 and move into the top ten.

It was Oakley's third league goal in 11 games for the Rams - as many as he managed for Saints in his last four seasons at St Mary's, though he did spend over a year sidelined through injury.