Russell Martin challenged Ryan Fraser to kick on after the Scotland international’s late goal maintained Southampton’s promising run with a 2-1 win at Hull.
The on-loan Newcastle winger opened his Saints account in the fifth minute of stoppage time to settle a fascinating game of end-to-end football.
Martin said: “People ask me, ‘what’s he like as a person?’ – he’s a brilliant lad.
“He’s intelligent, he lives for football and he enjoys being here.
“We’ve been trying to get him fit by playing games, which is not ideal, but he does everything properly and that finish was top drawer.
“I’m really pleased for him. He has great technical ability and he’s a top guy, which I already knew before he joined the club.”
Despite their slow start to the season, Southampton are now unbeaten in four games and are fifth in the Sky Bet Championship.
A frenetic game felt destined to end in a draw after Will Smallbone’s opening goal in the 20th minute was cancelled out by Liam Delap just five minutes later.
Hull were the better side in the first half and also served notice of their intent with an early flurry of chances after the interval.
But Martin’s judicious use of the bench eventually yielded handsome dividends.
Following a sustained spell of late pressure, Fraser, who replaced Stuart Armstrong after 84 minutes, was well positioned to sweep home Flynn Downes’ precise cross from the right.
Martin said: “Away from home against a team who are playing well – they’re in a good place, this club – I’m delighted.
“We didn’t get a few details quite right (in the first half) but we caused them plenty of problems.
“It was a really good game – two teams going at it – and we tweaked a few things (after the break).
“But that wouldn’t have mattered if the mentality of the players wasn’t right, which it was.
“I thought we were outstanding in the second half. Hull grew tired and it was just relentless.
“When you’re attacking that much there’s going to be gaps and our players dealt with that brilliantly.
“I thought we were worthy winners. We were maybe too safe in the first half, but in the second half we were brilliant.
“This team is growing together, which is great to see.”
Hull side have won just once in seven games, but head coach Liam Rosenior is convinced his team are on the right path.
He said: “The manner of conceding a goal in the last minute is probably the most horrible way to lose a game.
“We need to eradicate that. For all our great play, you have to keep the back door shot.
“It became a game of who finishes their chances? We are going to be more open this season but hopefully through the season, the subs will give us the goals we will need.
“The exciting thing is that this group has got a lot of improvement. I’m very happy with the positive signs, but we have to stop throwing away points.”
Rosenior added: “We have to learn on the job, get more experience and make sure we don’t make the same mistake twice.
“It hurts at the moment, but I’m delighted we’ve got a game on Wednesday to get this out of our system.
“Some of our football has been excellent, but it needs to be excellent with points.
“I feel terrible about this result, but maybe we need to feel that pain.
“I love this group – if you see in the dressing room they are devastated – but the second goal was unacceptable from my point of view and we need to put that right.
“We are two points out of the play-offs – it’s nothing. I was delighted with the energy, but we have to start taking advantage of the moments in games.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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