Of course, having been cruising 3-0 with ten minutes to go, the final result of 3-2 must have been a bit of a blow. “When you win in the Premier League you are quite happy," said Strachan. "I was delirious with ten minutes to go, but I am just satisfied now.

“I think if somebody saw it on Teletext, they would have seen that we were 3-0 up, Smith got sent off, then Leeds got two back. Those people would imagine that we took our foot off the pedal, relaxed, and tried to take the mick.

“It couldn’t be any further from the truth. We actually stepped it up a level; we passed it, we made more chances, the goalkeeper made saves, we had more corners and played some great football. I thought ‘this could be quite a score here.’

"Then it gets to 3-2 and you think ‘what happened there?’ That was the only minus-point today, but I thought the football was absolutely first class.

Saints were first class and every player showed a level of commitment which may see the club shake off their usual end of season mediocrity.

“We talk about things that might be a physical or mental hurdle. But the first time that Leeds kicked a ball, to their right-back, James Beattie charged it down and I thought ‘they’re fine.’ The two strikers set the tone. The ball went back to the goalie about 30 seconds after that and they both chased after it.

Both Beattie and Ormerod had excellent games. Beattie continues to show what a complete striker he is, regardless of international call ups, while Brett Ormerod is finally getting the goals that his performances have warranted.

“James Beattie created today as well, and he could have scored numerous goals for different reasons. I thought the two strikers were fantastic today," said Gordon.

A saints midfield, sans Chris Marsden look composed. Fabrice Fernandes getting in his fair share of tackles as well as looking good going forward as usual. David Prutton, Marsden's replacement on the left continued to show why he's a star of the England Under-21 side. Saints have made a great signing for the future.

With such dominance of the midfield there was only going to be one winner and Strachan singled out each one for special praise. “David Prutton was excellent," said Strachan. "He took a couple of games to feel his way in but I thought he let us see the real David Prutton today. Anders Svensson was excellent. I didn’t have a failure today.”

On Fabrice Gordon said:“I know he is going to create, I know he is going to keep the ball for us, and that’s what he is in our team for. Sometimes he might hold it for too long, but I would rather that than have him flicking and being a scared footballer.

“There is a physical and mental bravery involved because he is not big so he has to hold onto the ball and he doesn’t care if he gets kicked, so we like him. He buys us time on the ball to get organised.

As for the Leeds reaction to the game, Gordon, added: “Peter Reid also said it could have been any score, and that’s coming from the opposing manager. I said to Peter that my team played very, very well and I am delighted with them. I don’t want to speak about Peter’s team because he looks after that.”

Peter Reid was far from happy with his side's miserable display and said: "I might be here only a short time, but those players on long contracts had better pull their fingers out. I'm not going to protect them for that. We just didn't want to work hard enough."