SAINTS have all but cemented their place in the Premiership next season - and boss Gordon Strachan has already drawn up a list of summer transfer targets.

Matthew Oakley and Marian Pahars scored the goals in a convincing 2-0 win over Derby on Saturday to haul the team above the psychologically important 40 mark - they lie 11th with 41 points.

Mathematically, Saints can still be caught by the teams below them, but Leicester were relegated on Saturday after defeat at the hands of Manchester United, Derby are now in deep trouble and third from bottom Ipswich face an horrendous run-in after getting thumped 4-1 at Bolton.

Strachan admitted: "If you'd said to me when I took over in October that we'd have 41 points with four games to go, I'd have grabbed that, but about six games ago, I got really greedy and told the lads to go for it.

"It hasn't materialised that way, but we've learned some lessons and, next season, we'll try and get as far as we can with the players we've got."

Strachan said he had a list of transfer targets, although he feels his squad does not need a wholesale overhaul. "There's not too much for us to do," he said.

"The squad has to get better, so we'll try and get more good players in to make the present players' jobs easier by taking the pressure off them to always be fit and playing at a high level.

"We've got one or two players in mind, but we don't yet know what we'll have to spend in the summer.

"I've already got a lot of good players to work with that are of a good age - not too old and not too young, like Rory Delap, James Beattie, Wayne Bridge, Matt Oakley, Anders Svensson and Marian Pahars."

Strachan is keen that Saints are no longer looking over their shoulders and, next season, the club should be challenging in the top half to prove they are a genuine force in the Premiership - a league he rates above any other.

"Since I came to England, the standard has risen tremendously," he added.

"It's getting harder all the time and now you're playing against the best players in the world.

"But I believe I have a lot of players who can achieve a lot in the game, so I have to make the club as ambitious as possible and hope the good players want to stay."

Southampton aim to cement a place in the top half of the table at Charlton on Saturday, and complete their run-in with home games against Everton and Newcastle United, sandwiched between a trip to Aston Villa.