Alan Pardew said:

"The French players were terrific - and the English players were very good, too. But the new arrivals have put us in good shape. Six weeks ago we certainly wouldn't have beaten Southampton. But now we look like a different team.

"Losing Demba Ba, losing Yohan Cabaye, losing Steven Taylor and playing a lot of the season without Fabricio Coloccini and Cheik Tiote, it takes its toll. At this level you need your best players on the pitch, and we have that now. We’ve come on recently and we needed to.

"We have 30 points, we’re three points off 10th, we’re in the Europa League and we’re looking good in it and suddenly our season is turning. There’s a different feel to the club now and everybody’s contributed. If we didn’t have the financial input from Mike Ashley we wouldn’t be in this position, and we needed it.

"(Mathieu) Debuchy was absolutely magnificent - that is why we tracked him for so long, as we didn't want to miss out on a talent like that.

"I've been saying for a long time since I arrived at this club that we've never really had a natural number 10 because, in the modern game, you need to have that. Moussa Sissoko came in and is much better at that (than Demba Ba). Obviously Demba's a striker, he plays that number 9 role for Chelsea, but we have Papiss.

"In some ways, it was a great idea from above (to have the French day), as I thought it took a bit of tension out the game. The fun element certainly helped us a bit. I went to a French restaurant last night just to get in the mood for it but I suffered all night with indigestion!" 

Picture the scene: a packed house at St.James' cheering on their favourites, sporting red, white and blue flags, scarves and face paint in celebration of the club's business policy. And while the display of those colours was inspired by the French flag rather than the Sports Direct livery, it's the closest thing that Monsieur Ashley has had to a show of support round these parts for a while.     

Newcastle recorded back to back home victories for the first time this season, coming from behind to make it three wins in their last four Premier League outings and for Alan Pardew there was the added satisfaction of seeing his Magpies side finally beat a club he previously managed - the first time in five attempts this season.

United had christened this French day in honour of their players from that nation but the visitors quickly drew first blood through one of their own Gallic contingent. Standing in for the injured Tim Krul, goalkeeper Rob Elliot's first meaningful act in the Premier League was to retrieve the ball from his net after Morgan Schneiderlin turned and shot home within three minutes.

Conceding a goal so early galvanised both home players and crowd and Newcastle pressed forward in search of an equaliser, the Saints surviving two credible penalty shouts for handball.

Yoan Gouffran and Mathieu Debuchy both returned to the starting lineup after sitting out the Metalist ties, while Cheick Tiote overcame the illness that saw him miss out on Thursday night in Ukraine, sporting a new blonde Mohican haircut - either that or a sheepskin hat.  

And while the Ivorian looked in good nick and showed some welcome discipline (aided by some benevolent refereeing), it was Gouffran who created a deserved leveller for Moussa Sissoko before United had grabbed the lead with another sensational Senegal strike from Papiss Cisse.

Losing the services of captain Fabricio Coloccini before half time to what looked like a back injury, United again started off slowly and Elliot was forced into an acrobatic stop to defy Ricky Lambert's well-struck free kick. 

Davide Santon's failure to retreat from midfield was then punished by Lambert's 100th goal for Southampton and the visiting forward then put another effort wide as our reshaped defence struggled to find their feet. Undaunted, United again upped their game in response to conceding and pushed forward to sweep crosses and corners across the Saints area without testing Boruc. 

That then bore fruit with a correctly-called handball and well-dispatched penalty kick to give the blanc et noirs the lead. although another goal looked necessary to see off a determined Saints side who broke at speed and threatened to expose a tiring Magpies ensemble.

That duly arrived in faintly farcical circumstances with eleven minutes of normal time remaining to finally put the game beyond the visitors and send United six points clear of the drop zone into fourteen, with Tottenham's victory at West Ham the following day moving us up a further place.

Pleasingly, we were able to follow up a midweek success in Europe with an equally notable domestic victory and scored four times in the Premier League for the first time since April 2011. Post-Ba, that came as a considerable relief, even if there were elements of fortune in all four goals (Cisse straying offside when the original ball was launched into the Southampton half before his rasper).  

And despite the forced nature of the Gallic themed celebration, the gesture certainly seemed to be appreciated by the French enclave. They repaid their audience with further industrious displays across the field; the significant presence of Sissoko to the fore and Debuchy finding his feet.

Très bien, as they say in Blakelaw. 

Biffa