Russell Martin hailed his “relentless” Southampton side for finally blowing apart a Championship rival after thrashing 10-man Blackburn 4-0.
Samuel Edozie, Stuart Armstrong, Sekou Mara and Carlos Alcaraz all netted as Saints continued their best unbeaten run for 39 years and made it five home victories in a row.
Southampton’s single-digit goal difference and early-season slump had seen them fall behind pace-setters Leicester and Ipswich, but after 14 matches without defeat, they are starting to put pressure on the top two.
Martin said: “We’re not even halfway through the season and there is so much more room to grow.
“Hopefully we can have more days like today but even when we have only been winning by one goal in our eyes it has been convincing.
“You can’t always win convincingly, not even the teams at the top are leaving teams in their wake.
“I felt like we needed the second goal in the second half and always looked likely to get it even before the sending-off.
“I don’t know how you define a convincing win but we have got the goals we felt have been coming.
“We have been punished a couple of times for not scoring the goals but today we were relentless. The league is so tight and the goals might be really important at the end of the season.
“I’m really pleased we got the third and fourth goals as it is a fair reflection of the players’ mentality and creation. I enjoyed watching the team.
“That is five wins at home in a row and that is really amazing for the players. If we keep putting in performances like that we’ll see where it takes us.”
After dominating the first half, Saints finally led in the 44th minute when Edozie – on his first start for two months – diverted James Bree’s corner home.
Rovers defender Callum Brittain was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away in the 55th minute, having already been booked for pulling Kyle Walker-Peters’ shirt.
And from then on Saints turned on the style.
Stuart Armstrong stroked in after following in on Flynn Downes getting chopped down to make it 2-0 in the 64th minute.
Mara won a penalty, only for Alcaraz to chip over, but the Frenchman tapped in Ryan Fraser’s cross before Alcaraz thumped in a fourth deep into stoppage time.
Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson revealed Brittain apologised in the dressing room after the match, but pinpointed his lack of discipline as the turning point at St Mary’s.
“It is a disappointing day. It is always going to be a difficult game against a team that is a Premier League squad,” he said.
“We knew that but we came with the intention of winning the game. In the first half we were quite solid and gave one chance away but we weren’t quite good enough on the ball today and the first goal’s timing hurts our game.
“The game totally changed after the red card and being a player behind against a Premier League side is difficult. We were still in the game after the first goal but after the second booking the game is over.
“Callum apologised to his team-mates in the dressing room immediately. A game where we could have got something out of it at 1-0, then suddenly the game is over.”
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