Southampton manager, Tonda Eckert believes the Saints’ progress to the Championship Play-Off Final shows “belief and character” within the squad.
Shea Charles curled in a 116th-minute extra-time winner to complete the Saints’ 2-1 aggregate comeback win over Middlesbrough, after Ross Stewart’s header cancelled out Riley McGree’s fifth-minute strike.
“It’s tough to put it into words,” explained Eckert to Southampton’s official website post-match as he noted that he had planned for the possibility of Boro taking an early lead.
“It’s been a long shift tonight, obviously not the start to the game that we wanted, but we spoke about this before the game – there might be very different scenarios and we don’t know which one it is.
“Obviously you want to start strong in the game, but sometimes it goes one way and sometimes it goes another.”
Eckert added that the comeback demonstrated confidence and characterisation of his players to grind out the win, albeit with the motivation of the crowd.
“It just shows the belief and the character of the team that no matter how the game unfolds, we always find a way.
“I think that is credit to the players, credit to the staff to get the whole squad ready for this game, physically, and obviously to the supporters because the support has been outstanding.
“You could feel in moments of the game that the crowd carried us today, and that was massive.”