WHEN Saints and Brentford kick off on Wednesday night at St Mary’s, it will mark 39 days since the last time the two sides faced each other.

On that occasion, Saints - then managed by Nathan Jones - collapsed emphatically as the Bees emerged comfortable 3-0 victors to deepen Southampton's relegation fears while also throwing another dagger into the former Luton manager’s reign.

Now, just over a month later things look rather different with Ruben Selles at the helm. Saints have picked up seven points from the Spaniard’s four games in charge while keeping three clean sheets in the process.

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But that humbling experience in West London will no doubt play on the minds of some Saints supporters even if Selles himself sees a team with newfound togetherness.

"I remember that it was a difficult day,” Selles said on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the reverse fixture on the South Coast. “That's what I can tell you.”

“I don't want to compare (to before he was manager) as it would not be fair from my point of view. But I just see a team that can work together and people and fans that believe that we can do it. 

“Now I see a good environment and we are looking forward to the game tomorrow at St Mary’s. So I just see that a team that wants to perform in front of the fans and I just love the fact that we can do it all together.”

Victory against Thomas Frank’s side would take Saints out of the relegation zone for the first time since late October and could carry them all the way up to 15th - with a considerable goal difference swing.

While Saints remain bottom of the table heading into the midweek clash, there are now just five points separating them from Crystal Palace in 12th as nine teams compete to avoid falling into the bottom three at the end of the campaign.

“It's so tight but we knew when we got the team it was to make games difficult for the opponent and to look in our performance and to control the things that we can control,” Selles said of the relegation battle state of play. 

“I think we are doing that. And more than the three points tomorrow, it’s for us to have the personality to bring our game into the game and to have a big performance. And if we do that, we're going to have the chance to win the game.

“So that's more about thinking about what happened or three points or one point or zero points because at the end of the day, if you spend your time reading the table every single week, you get stressed by facts that you cannot control.

"So for us tomorrow it’s about how we can make the best game possible to win the game and then after the game we will see.”