Southampton: Saints making late push for automatic promotion

BBC Radio Solent’s Southampton commentator Adam Blackmore:

It’s been quite the turnaround for Saints from three months ago when they lost at home to Hull in January, were booed off, and we all pondered whether Tonda Eckert could survive a derby loss at Pompey eight days later.

What happened was Eckert saw the need for change, acted, and they haven’t looked back since. So what did he change?

The formation crucially is one and also the partnerships on the pitch. They went on to secure a narrow home win over Sheffield United and draw at Fratton Park.

It all stems from the head coach. Eckert is humble, preaches humility, and this shows in the way they play.

Nothing is taken for granted, there is no room for complacency, and the humility shows up off the ball – as Tonda says, work hard, heads down and on to the next game.

It’s a mantra that serves them well. Every player I speak to has that mindset, they know they aren’t going to presume anything, and that’s a huge credit to Eckert and his staff that everyone is pointing in the same direction finally at Saints. It hasn’t always been the way.

And the other key factor to what they’ve done is Eckert’s clarity – clarity of messaging, clarity of tactics, and clarity of mission.

Since day one the squad have lapped up his detail and his ability to gameplan – and they love executing his gameplans.

And when he makes four or five changes to the side, they carry on. It’s plug-and-play football that all comes from hard work and clear messaging on the training ground.

Now having said all that, they haven’t achieved anything yet – but that doesn’t worry me because I honestly can’t see them falling apart.

They may not win the FA Cup and they may not get promoted but what I don’t envisage is a collapse in the season at the final hurdles, they’re just too focused for that.

In Tonda we trust, as the fans say, and while he won’t look further ahead than Swansea, I think they can absolutely make the final home game against Ipswich at the end of the month a game where they might just be playing for automatic promotion.

It’s going to be fun, whatever happens. It’s been quite the ride since January.