On the eve of his side's final Premiership match of the season at Manchester City, Saints boss Gordon Strachan admitted: "It would hurt if we finished out of the top ten."
Saints round off their 38-game league campaign at Maine Road tomorrow knowing a win would virtually guarantee them a top-half finish in the final league table.
Despite the achievement of reaching an FA Cup final and gaining European qualification, Strachan still sets massive importance on finishing in the top ten - something he is convinced Saints would have done with much more comfort if wasn't for all the injuries they've suffered.
He said: "I would like desperately to stay in the top ten so I can say 'yeah, we are a top ten side.'
"For 90 per cent of this season we have proved that and I wouldn't like to drop out in the last game of the season - that would hurt me and it wouldn't be fair for all the hard work these guys have put in."
Strachan added: "The chairman of the club would strangle anyone who said this was a meaningless fixture - there's millions riding on it.
"Our league position has been fifth, sixth, seventh but, because of circumstances, we've dropped right back down.
"I believe my team would've been at least in seventh position had we had any sort of luck with injuries.
"It would horrible for us to drop down there and finish way down the league because it really wouldn't justify the football we've played this year.
"But I think I can sum it up by saying Blackburn were in the UEFA Cup and weren't that far up the league until they went out of Europe and started going up the league. And they've got more than us financially, so it shows that, even for them, going for two things is a struggle."
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