Mark Hughes praised the character of his Saints team as they signed off for the first international break with an opening Premier League win of the season.

Saints built on their midweek Carabao Cup victory over Brighton with a well deserved 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park to really get their campaign up and running.

Danny Ings gave Saints a hard earned second half lead but they came under pressure towards the end after Charlie Austin had missed a penalty before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg secured the three points late on.

Hughes was understandably pleased with the performance as well as the result from his side.

He said: “We’re delighted. We fully deserved the result in my view.

“I thought it was a really good performance with two parts to it really.

“In the first half I thought we showed good control and looked really dominant in that first 45 minutes, managed the game very well and probably the only negative was that we hadn’t capitalised on the amount of possession and opportunities we had.

“That means there is always a little bit of concern that it might come back and bite you on the backside because you haven’t capitalised on a good period of pressure and dominance, but we got ourselves in front and at that point I felt we were very comfortable in the game.

“You are going to get a reaction from Roy’s team when they go behind at home and that’s what we got.

“When we missed the penalty it gave them a boost and a little bit of momentum that we had to withstand in the latter part of the game.

“In the end we have gone up the other end, scored a goal and seen the game out comfortably.

“We had to show different parts to our game, different qualities.

“First half there was a lot of control in our play, second half we had to dig in and do the ugly stuff. That’s the sign of a good team in my view.”

Hughes admitted that Saints were left a little annoyed that they didn’t get the credit they felt they deserved for the last gasp defeat at Leicester and rallied to beat Palace.

“I just thought it was a really good solid away performance, and from a group that were maybe frustrated that they felt they didn’t get enough credit for the way they played against Leicester,” admitted Hughes.

“Results will always change the perception of how well or poorly you have done in games but against Leicester we had a sending off and that effected our ability to see the game out.

“We had a bit of fortune and good saves from Alex and blocks on the line and you have to have that in your performance if you are going to protect a lead and win a difficult Premier League game because it’s not easy coming here."