SAINTS boss Russell Martin has labelled the meeting with Bristol City as a "brilliant chance" for his players to show how much they have gained from Saturday's victory over Huddersfield.

The south coast side came out on top in an eight-goal thriller against the Terriers to remain second in the Championship.

Martin knows Bristol City will offer another tough test but he wants his Saints team to impose themselves and "be the team we want to be".

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Monday, he insisted: "(Bristol City) are very good on transitions as they were at our place. Liam (Manning) had just taken over at that point.

"They are very athletic, hungry, and enthusiastic, they run for each other, and they work hard for each other. They can mix the game up.

"(Saturday's 2-1 win at Middlesbrough) was a huge result for them after the Leeds result and they played 120 minutes in the cup as well.

"Middlesbrough away is a difficult game and they came through it with three points.

"I’m sure they’ll take energy from that but the challenge for us is to always try and play the game on our terms and be the team we want to be.

"It is not to try, it is to be that. There’s a big difference. I think the lads are beyond trying, they need to go and do it which they do so often."

Saints beat Bristol City 1-0 in the return fixture at the end of November - with Kyle Walker-Peters scoring a stunning winner.

The Southampton boss is excited ahead of their trip to Ashton Gate and he believes it is a good opportunity to show an improved performance.

He continued: "We’ll have thousands of supporters there, it’s a good place to play and I’m looking forward to it.

"It’s a brilliant chance for the players to show how much we’ve learnt and how much we can improve on from Saturday."