GORDON Strachan has given his personal assurance that Southampton will be back on song at the Reebok on Saturday.

The Saints boss slated his players after their 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City and has spent the early part of the week reminding them how they played their way into the Premiership's top four and pledging an immediate improvement against Wanderers.

He told Graham Hiley of the official Saints website "One thing is for sure - we will have a good week of coaching and we will be better at Bolton.

"It seems the players have got to be reminded how we play and how I like to see the game played.

"Make no mistake, this week they will know exactly how I want to play the game and how I want us to progress!

"We all had a bad day but I cannot accept off-days and they will be better on Saturday."

Cuttingly critical of Saints' performance against City, he said: "I don't remember coaching the side to play the ball direct and to feed off the scraps

"I can't remember saying get the ball to the full-backs and belt it in and fight for it. That was football from the late Eighties and the game has changed since then.

"We are better than that and I don't want to see it again. We were very one-dimensional.

"We did not take enough responsibility or have enough thinking on the ball. We did not have enough imagination and flair.

"The players have to be coached and reminded all the time - otherwise we get performances like that. I am way beyond disappointed. The better team won, the braver team and the better passing team won.

"The one-dimensional team, the plodding team, the lack-of-imagination team got beaten."