Deano: Crowd were just brilliant

DEAN Richards hailed the occasion and was relieved to come away with the four points that lift his side to third in the table.

He said: “St James’ Park is a fantastic stadium, and we’ve know that since the World Cup games here in 2015. In that respect we were just itching to get here and play, and the atmosphere was absolutely brilliant.

“There is more to Newcastle than just soccer. It’s just a sportsmad city and region.

“At the same time, I think the win was the most important thing. I think we probably deserved to nick it on the day.

Saints boss Alan Gaffney rued the high penalty count against his team: “Ill-discipline cost us and giving Toby Flood so many kicks at goals isn’t good enough. It has been a common theme over the last three or four games and we need to be better. Three penalties emanated from restarts and that’s just schoolboy stuff.”