DEFENDER Ryan Manning admits his first few months at Saints were 'tough' but now hopes to 'improve' his performances. 

Manning, who joined from Swansea City in the summer, spent his first two months on the south coast living out of a hotel.

On the pitch, the full-back concedes that his early Southampton career was tough in parts, but he now feels he is starting to kick on.

He told the club's media team: “It’s been a quick six months. It took a bit of time for us to settle at the beginning of the season.

"We had a few good results but had that little blip for four games or so, then we went on an unbeaten run and were just trying to rein in the teams ahead of us.

“I think, from a personal point of view, I had a few poor performances that meant the manager had to rotate the squad, especially when people are knocking on the door trying to get in."

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He continued: “It just shows the standard within the squad that you have to be on it every single week or else you come out of the team.

"That is only going to make myself and the rest of the boys in the squad better players."

Since joining, Manning has seen the atmosphere and positivity at Staplewood grow, in large part due to Southampton's long unbeaten run.

“You can see the camaraderie around the training ground between the boys, the staff and everything," he continued. 

"I feel like there’s a real feel-good factor around the place and that’s probably beginning to transfer across the pitch on a Saturday with the performances.

“Momentum is massive in football, especially in the Championship because it’s so relentless.

"It was probably a bit of character-building time (four-game losing streak) for us as a squad I think every team will have their blip.

“I think everyone is starting to believe in what we can do and I think the fans are getting behind it now too."

Southampton currently sit third in the Championship, three points behind Ipswich Town in second place.

Daily Echo: Southampton 5-0 Swansea City

While Manning admits he would rather sit top of the league, he notes that Saints can only focus on themselves and hope the teams around them slip up.

"We just hope that maybe the pressure of us being unbeaten behind (the top teams) is enough for them to start to wobble.

"They've done alright so far this season so it might not happen but, as a group, I don't think we can do much more than what we are doing."

When speaking with the Daily Echo earlier this season, Manning detailed how he hopes to improve on his attacking output from the previous campaign.

He notched five goals and provided ten assists in a Swansea shirt last season, but has only managed to make two assists so far at Southampton.

Across his last two appearances, Manning has created nine chances (four against Plymouth and five against Norwich City) - the most of any player.

The Irish international still has plenty of time to improve on his numbers, which he intends to do, but also admits he doesn’t care who is scoring or assisting as long as Saints are winning games.

“I’m just hoping to get better and improve my performances and start to put some numbers together for myself to help the team out and show fans more of what I can do.

“In the second half of the season, if we can perform even better than we did in the first half, hopefully, we’re in the top two come May.”