RUSSELL Martin says Saints need to be "realistic" with rotation with two games this week and ensure that the players can "recover as best as possible."

Southampton travel to Stoke on Tuesday evening, just three days after they ended their four-game losing streak against Leeds on the weekend.

The former Scotland international made three changes to his side which beat fellow relegated Premier League side Leeds 3-1. 

Martin has previously expressed his desire to pick a settled starting lineup but has pointed towards injuries and players getting up to fitness as reasons why he has been unable to do so thus far.

“I think we have to be realistic and accept that we have to rotate a little bit over the next two games," he added, speaking ahead of his side's trip to the Potteries. 

"We have guys who played on Saturday that haven’t started or played a lot of minutes for quite a while.

“With the medical and sports science teams we will do our best to make sure they recover as best as possible.

"We have great facilities here, it’s top. We have really brilliant staff and we will manage them the best way we can.

“The way we play takes a lot of intensity from the players, within their minds and their legs. We have to be aware of it, but at the same time try to make sure we can build on the really positive weekend.”

Both sides head into tomorrow evening's game having won on Saturday to put an end to a poor run of form.

Even after a big win over an in form Leeds team, Martin was under no illusions that Saints need to keep the level of performance up against Stoke. 

"It will be a really interesting and different game to Saturday," he continued. "I am really looking forward to it. Will (Smallbone) played under Alex Neil last season and has an understanding of how he works.

"We will be tapping into that as well. We need to have a good week. The supporters were great on Saturday. Having watched the goals back I hope there is real evidence of the work we are doing.

"I was really proud of that. We need to keep building, it's not enough. We need to be better again and hopefully we will be over these next two games."