SAINTS manager Nathan Jones admitted there were a few flaws in his side versus Blackpool but insisted: “I’d rather be in the hat than absolutely delighted with the performance.”

Romain Perraud scored twice to give the St Mary’s side a comfortable lead over the Championship strugglers but Charlie Patino's finish meant the game only ended 2-1.

Blackpool submitted the young, rotated Saints side to an aerial bombardment in the closing stages of the game with the goalkeeper coming up in six minutes of added time.

But Jones’s charges held on for a fourth win in January and progression to the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday, which is due to be played at the start of March.

“At 2-0 you’re cruising, there’s no real issue but when you don’t defend properly and allow them to counterattack then you have to defend it,” Jones said, assessing the match.

“This is the FA Cup and Blackpool had nothing to lose. They were throwing everything at it at the end and you have to defend it.

“We had a lot of young players, a disjointed side with a lot of players that haven’t played so I’m really pleased to go through.

“People might look for the negatives in it but at the end of the day we haven’t been knocked out today by a side that’s in a lower league than us,” he added.

“It’s the cup, you look at some other results and Premier League teams have had tough games, we’ve had a tough game today.

“We expected that from a Mick McCarthy side so let’s not be disrespectful to Blackpool and assume that we would trounce. I’ve been in the Championship and we would have fancied anyone.

“There are certain things we can improve on but there were a lot of positives, a lot of people got minutes, we had a disjointed team and we’re in the hat so that’s the main thing.”

Jones was animated on the touchline throughout the contest despite his side retaining over 66 per cent possession of the ball and completing a pass success ratio of 84 per cent.

“I just feel frustrated at times because there is a lot of stuff we work on that doesn’t come out, but look, that happens,” Jones explained.

“Some haven’t played and it’s disjointed, it’s not like that side has continuity – we’ve had to cut and change due to the cup competitions.

“But there was enough there today, the application was there but some of the decision-making could have been better.

“We had enough opportunities to create and I expect a little bit more from certain people, but they need time.

“I would rather be sat here with a few frustrations about the performance but in the hat than absolutely delighted with the performance and knocked out.”

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