The Saints are on the brink of climbing out of the League One relegation zone after a fourth straight win. They trailed 1-0 at the break to a stunning free-kick strike by Jason Puncheon right on the stroke of half-time.

But shortly after making a double substitution, they turned the match on its head with second-half strikes by Dean Hammond, Rickie Lambert and an injury-time third by substitute David Connolly.

"MK Dons were third in the table and the highest placed side we've played so far, so to beat them is of great significance and will give us great confidence," Pardew said.

"I didn't think we played very well in the first half. We stopped doing what we'd been good at in recent games and, whilst we had a lot of the ball, we didn't really look like hurting them.

"But it was different in the second half. We had players running at them, taking defenders on and created plenty of chances, three of which we put away."