Southampton boss Jan Poortvliet was full of praise for his young guns, who fought back from two goals down to beat Preston 3-2.
Harsh words from Irvine for his PNE side's poor errors
Southampton boss Jan Poortvliet was full of praise for his young guns, who came from two goals down to beat Preston 3-2.
His Saints side, with an average age of 19, responded to a half-time reshuffle, boosted by a star performance from 17-year-old debutant Oscar Gobern and fellow sub Bradley Wright-Phillips.
It was their first win in over a month in the Championship, whereas Preston have now lost seven of their last nine games.
After the success, the Saints manager said: "For me, the result is a big compliment for the side. When you are 2-0 down it looks bad.
"I didn't think we played bad but in the first half we were playing with no determination, no real drive to win the game.
"I said something at half-time, I was a little bit angry. Before the game, we had a plan to attack them, to break out quickly and move the ball.
"It looked like we were not there to score a goal, just to play football.
Proud
"But I'm very proud of the boys. Sometimes you need luck for a first goal. You need to be there quickly. Then you go on and hope.
"At the same time we were then looking dangerous on the break.
"Today, the average age of our players was about 19. We have two home games coming up and hopefully we can now bring it home. I am happy for the fans and even more happy for myself."
However Preston boss Alan Irvine bemoaned his team's lack of professionalism after North End gave away a two-goal cushion.
"I'm extremely unhappy. We let a game which was completely in our control go away from us," he said.
"We have turned a victory into a defeat in a totally unacceptable manner. The word that springs to mind at the moment is unprofessional. I felt we got careless.
Unprofessional
"At half-time I used words like professional, cold, clinical and ruthless. We didn't display those qualities and if you get careless and unprofessional you lose games.
"I think we gave Southampton a lot of encouragement. We defended badly for their first two goals.
"We had chances to put the game away and we didn't take them. I believe it was from being careless and not doing the job properly."
