HARRY REDKNAPP has promised Saints fans: If we stay up, this relegation battle will be a one-off!

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo today, the Saints boss insists he is confident the club, currently second from bottom, can avoid the dreaded drop.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's FA Cup fifth round tie at home to Brentford, he says: "If we can hang in this year, I'm sure I can put together a team next year that won't be in a relegation struggle - I know that for a fact."

Redknapp confesses he saw rescuing Saints from relegation as "an impossible job" when he replaced Steve Wigley in December.

"It's got a lot easier when I look back to that first week here," he admits. "I looked around and thought 'I've got a real hard job here.' I really did.

"To be honest, I thought it was an impossible job when I took it.

"No one has got a magic wand and football has never been any different. It is about having good players.

"To take on someone else's team and turn them around is not possible. The confidence was low.

"But with the group we have got now, I've got a confidence - it's a different feeling for me."

Redknapp will review his own situation at the end of the season.

But he feels the team he has now assembled would be capable of a top-half finish if he could start the campaign again.

He said: "At the moment nothing concerns me except points. I can't think any further than the last 12 games."

Redknapp also reveals that the Saints job will definitely be his last in football.

To read the exclusive interview with Harry Redknapp see today's Daily Echo.