Nigel Adkins paid tribute to his squad as Saints sealed promotion to the Championship with a 3-1 win over Walsall.

Adkins took over in September following the sacking of Alan Pardew with the club rocking but quickly steadied the ship and turned one of League One’s most expensively assembled squads into promotion winners.

Saints’ second placed finish secured Adkins’ third promotion from League One since changing roles from a physio to a manager and he was understandably delighted.

He said: “It’s been great.

“We said when we came in ‘together as one’ and the whole football club is united and it’s great.

“You saw the emotion on the pitch and great credit to the players because they’ve been so professional since I’ve been here.

“They are an honest, hardworking group and they deserve to celebrate because they’ve achieved something very special this year.

“It’s the first step of the vision set out by the chairman, Nicola Cortese, that he sold to me and what we’ve got to do is make sure we get ourselves ready for next season now.”