Ronald Koeman hailed the “unbelievable spirit” of his side as they halted a five-match losing streak with an impressive 3-0 win over Everton at St Mary’s.

With injuries and suspensions robbing Koeman of key players and meaning he had to name four under-21 players on his bench, the Toffees may well have fancied their chances of piling fresh misery on Saints.

But Koeman’s side, with a change of formation that saw them move to three at the back, produced a stirring display of character and determination to put another three points on the board and go into Christmas in fifth place.

“I think with the situation it was important to win,” admitted Koeman.

“We hadn’t some good players but the message and the answer what the lads gave was all about the spirit what they had to show.

“We know about our fans, they are always supporting the team, but I understood why they were very disappointed about last Tuesday (defeat to Sheffield United) “That was the message – you can talk, you can show, but the answer always is on the pitch and we showed that.”

Saints – who avoided losing six games in a row for the first time since 1957 – came in for a lot of criticism after being dumped out of the Capital One Cup by League One Sheffield United, but this was an impressive response.

“It’s a little bit typical football,” said Koeman. “One day it’s black, the next day it’s white.

“I know that, I’m a long time in football and always you have to prepare yourself for the next one and don’t say anything that we won.

“It says we had a good spirit but next Friday (against Crystal Palace) is another game and we have to prepare in the best way we can.

“The best medicine to have that confidence to play good football is winning games and in the last few weeks maybe we lost a bit of confidence in our way of playing, in our ball possession, and this was a different game, a different system and the win was very important.”

Koeman was asked whether this win might just be the most important of the season so far and added: “We hope so.

“Of course I think it’s always after some defeats you have always a different way in losing a game.

“We were very disappointed about last Tuesday and then always the answer is on the pitch and we had a great, unbelievable spirit.

“We changed the system and it’s always important if you change the system the players need to be comfortable in that system and we spoke about that and had two sessions to do that in a different way and we had a good organisation.

“I think the key to winning was winning the battles in midfield.

“Harry Reed was outstanding, he was showing with a lot of energy and you need that to play and to have the best of yourself. Normally mostly you have the luck on your side.

“Maybe a little bit lucky the first goal but second half we controlled the game, they didn’t create a lot, Fraser had two fantastic saves in the last 15 minutes.

“The team was outstanding and the team was the key to win the game.”