ANOTHER away day, another three points as Aidy Boothroyd saw his side condemn Southampton to a 3-0 New Year's Day thrashing at St Mary's.

It was a resolute performance from all of his men, with both strikers Marlon King and Darius Henderson getting on the score sheet, along with Damien Francis and at the other end of the park it was an immense performance from Richard Lee in between the sticks.

With that in mind, Boothroyd was full of praise for his men: "I thought Marlon, Darius and Dan Shittu were terrific today. Then you've got Damien who also grabbed a goal and Tommy Smith who got over an illness and travelled down today to put in a performance like that, I couldn't fault any of them.

"People keep knocking us down and we keep shutting them up. It's funny, if you swapped some of our away results for wins at home then there wouldn't be this fuss about us losing at home, but we know that should be where we're picking up the points and I'm saying the same thing every week, that is where we have to start improving."

With the transfer window about to come into full effect, the possibility of squad strengthening is an option, but not one that Boothroyd thinks should necessarily be used to full effect.

"I think we're performing well at the moment and when you're second in the league you have to think to yourself that there can't be that much that you're doing wrong.

"The media feeds the speculation, everyone starts to ask who you're looking at when really it's all about perspective. After the loss against QPR you would be thinking that we have to make wholesale changes and yet after today I'm entirely happy with how we performed. So it's all about looking at it objectively, and I have to be objective."

One position that Boothroyd may have to look at strengthening is at centre half, especially as Dan Shittu is about to meet up with Nigeria for the African Cup of Nations.

"We always knew that we'd be losing Danny and he'll be off after the Crystal Palace game and he could be gone until mid-February. It's a position that I'll look at definitely."

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