Speaking in the aftermath of the 1-1 draw with Hull City, Gary Megson revealed his satisfaction that his team are now assured of their Barclays Premier League status for next season.

The result came about from a well worked counter attack and finish from Gretar Steinsson, a move which again pleased the manager.

"I'm happy that we're now mathematically safe and we're in this division because it has been a while coming," he explained.

"The actual performance today I thought was better than our previous two games. I think the fact that we have had a cushion between ourselves and the bottom three, we've taken our foot off the gas, but I was pleased with the goal we scored.

"I thought Elmander played with quality, Muamba has tried to run past him and we've managed to get Steinsson up field and it's a good goal from our point of view."

A second half fightback with Hull City resulted in Jussi Jaaskelainen making a number of quality saves, and the manager praised the Finland international's contribution.

He said: "Jussi is top class. At one point in the second half, I turned around and had a go at Fred Barber because I thought he made a hash of a simple save, where he spilled it and Giovanni got on the ball.But, from that point onwards, it was a little bit of a wake-up call and he made some real top class saves after that.

"It was not too dissimilar to his performance against Wigan, where he made a mistake but after that was terrific. We wouldn't swap him for anybody and he's a terrific lad. I hope on August 8 at Jussi's testimonial that there's a full house for him."

Aside from Jaaskelainen, Megson also hailed the rest of his players and coaching staff for their efforts throughout the course of the last ten months.

He added: "I can't pay a big enough compliment to the clubs backroom staff, the medical people and the fitness and conditioning people who have managed to keep the players in tip top condition to get through the games.

"But most of all, you've seen today, we've got players playing out of position, and using different systems to try and get a result. I can't thank the players enough, they've been fantastic."