Defiant Pardew says seat but the meter re on the road to nowhe

DUSAN TADIC believes the resilience Southampton showed against West Brom can help their Premier League survival bid.

The 2-1 win at The Hawthorns set-up an FA Cup quarter-final trip to Manchester City or Wigan.

But Tadic is focused on staying in the top flight with a crucial run of games looming for 18th-placed Saints. They visit Turf Moor on Saturday, then play Stoke, Newcastle and West Ham.

Tadic said: “We will have these kind of teams the rest of the season. Next game we have Burnley, who are also physical and we need to compete against them.

“It’s a lot about confidence and I think we are going in the right direction. We will give our best with our fans to go on from this.”

Wesley Hoedt opened the scoring early on and Serbia star Tadic put the visitors 2-0 up on 56 minutes (above) with a delightful dink over Ben Foster for his fourth goal of the season.

Salomon Rondon replied almost immediately for Albion, and Saints weathered the storm to hold on for a win.

Tadic added: “We’re very happy because we showed great character to fight against a physical and strong team, especially in the second half. It was very important to get an early goal.

“I think from the start we had control of the game.

“In the second half it was a little bit difficult because they played direct and you need to defend against that.

‘‘We showed we can do that.”

MOTM ALEX McCARTHY