Southampton's Martin reveals motivation amid battle for promotion

Southampton currently sit eight points behind the automatic promotion spots which are taken up by Ipswich Town (45 points) and Leicester City (46 points).

However, Saints' 11-game unbeaten run is the best across the Football League, something which Martin thinks his players should take great pride in. 

Speaking on Friday he said: "It is something to be proud of. It is the longest unbeaten run in the country right now in any division.

"I said to the players they should be proud of themselves because that was on the back of four defeats as well. It's incredible what they’ve done.

"The motivation now is that we are hunting three teams above us who keep winning. Any other year, I think we’d be top or second in the league with the points tally that we have.

Saints lost to league leaders Leicester City when the two teams met earlier this season (Image: Stuart Martin)

"It’s not enough this year. We are chasing two teams that have made the best start in Championship history.

"They keep going and are relentless and we have to do that because we are playing catch up. Leeds also seem to keep matching our results.

"It makes it exciting. We have to stay in and around that and keep hunting people. We are trying to be proactive and positive."

Martin was asked about the merits of maintaining and protecting their current unbeaten run. "When you are hunting rather than being hunted, it’s difficult," he continued.

"We can’t go on a run of trying to defend and protect an unbeaten run, it’s not how I think or how I feel about it.

"This is a tough game against Watford who are going to try and stand in the way of what we are trying to achieve and a team that is trying to achieve what we want to achieve as well.

"We aren’t trying to protect anything, we’re not going to hang on to anything, we are going to try and do things in our way. That’s being respectful to the opposition but making sure that we are prepared and ready to put in the performance we need."