WE'RE hoping for a miracle! That's the message from Saints' chaplain Father Andrew McMahon, who faithfully believes the south coast team can stay in the Premiership.

And the Rev Ian Johnson, in charge of the parish St Mary's stadium falls under, is calling on fans to flock to remaining league games to give the struggling side a boost.

Catholic priest Fr McMahon, based at Park Place in Bishop's Waltham, has been Southampton FC's hands-on chaplain for 17 years.

He knows all the players, as well as Harry and Jim, and regularly drops into the training ground, the injury treatment suite - and even the dressing room.

He told the Daily Echo he has faith that Saints can avoid relegation and start by bagging three valuable points with a victory over Aston Villa at St Mary's tomorrow.

"They train together very well, very happily and very enthusiastically, they prepare for matches very well, and there can be no question of the quality of players," said Fr McMahon.

"But they have clearly struggled to lift their morale. The fans need to get behind the Saints to show them that we believe they can stay up."

He added that there would be "enormous disappointment" in Southampton if the team were relegated.

Rev Johnson, rector of Southampton city centre parish, said the club had a long association with his church - in fact, the original Saints were a team from St Mary's Church of England's Young Men's Association.

"I don't want Southampton to go down because it would have an big effect on the city," he said.

"Sadly, football is more important than religion to some people and when things do go wrong, it depresses the whole community."

Despite not being a football fan, Rev Johnson also pledged to drop into the remaining Saints games to spur on the side.

"I have never seen the Saints lose when I've been to a match, so maybe I need to go along for the rest of the reason," he said.

"We should not give up on them. It's very important that those who have never seen the Saints play before go along to the games - and that includes me!"