Ronald Koeman hailed the spirit of his side as they hammered MK Dons 6-0 in the Capital One Cup to equal their biggest ever post-war away win.

Saints matched the scoreline they notched against Carlisle in 1977, Wolves in 2007 and Oldham in 2011 with a resounding victory at stadiummk.

The result, thanks to two goals apiece from Jay Rodriguez, Sadio Mane and Shane Long, has earned them a fourth round home draw against Aston Villa.

It was a fantastic night for Saints and Koeman was understandably delighted, and not only by the margin of victory.

“The final result, but I think we showed from the first minute until the last second a great spirit in the team,” he said.

“I think of course we had a good start, two fast goals and the team had the belief and confidence and the total domination in the game.

“After half time the message to the players was continue playing like we did in the first half, keep the concentration, try to score more goals and keep the clean sheet.

“I think very pleased about our performance because we know in this kind of competition isn’t a normal result. It’s always close, it’s always 1-0, look to the other results, and we did it different and that was very positive.”

One of the biggest plus points to come from the night were the goals for Rodriguez, Mane and Long.

Though Mane has been in the team regularly, Rodriguez and Long have had to wait for their chances but looked full of confidence.

“It’s always important. Strikers like to score goals,” admitted Koeman.

“Of course they like to play well, to take opportunities, but they are always looking when they score.

“Jay the first goal was important in the game, Shane was doing well, Sadio played outstanding and that was important.

“It’s not fair to make individual compliments to those players because the whole team was working well and had the right spirit from the beginning.”

Saints reached the quarter-finals of the competition last season before losing to Sheffield United.

Having entered the competition at the third round stage this time round, thanks to their Europa League adventures, Saints are now just the Villa tie away from getting to the last eight again.

“It’s always important because we like to be strong, we like to win games and we had example of last year until the quarter-final and we try to reach further on in this tournament,” explained Koeman.

“We showed that ambition.”