Tottenham led 2-0 at half-time at St Mary's thanks to goals from Gareth Bale and Clint Dempsey, but had to endure a nerve-wracking 20 minutes after Jay Rodriguez pulled one back for the hosts.

Villas-Boas was delighted with the grit showed by his team, after their 4-2 loss to Chelsea last week was followed by a 1-1 draw against Maribor in the Europa League on Thursday.

"We have been struggling with a lot of injuries and that's why these players have been immense so far," Villas-Boas told Sky Sports.

"We don't have the in-depth squad that other teams have. We're playing Thursdays and Sundays, having two or three days to recover and that's why the feeling is extra special.

"It was a great win for us, particularly on a weekend when most of the top teams played each other."

Southampton manager Nigel Adkins, meanwhile, was pleased with the application of his team in the second half, and feels they simply ran out of time in the end after closing the match strongly.

"The second half was what we wanted in the first half," Adkins said. "Credit to Spurs, they slowed the game right down.

"We had the sucker punch of the two goals we conceded, which were poor ones from our point of view. In the second half we had them on the rack but ran out of time.

"We totally dominated the second half and pinned Tottenham back. It was more of a cup tie and we had a high energy."