Eckert encouraged by Saints' togetherness
Tonda Eckert stressed the importance of every player being ready to take their chance after a much-changed Southampton side stormed to victory at Wrexham on Tuesday night.
Saints produced one of the club’s best performances for many years to upset Premier League leaders Arsenal in the FA Cup on Saturday, but that did not stop Eckert making six alterations for the trip to North Wales in a crunch game in the Sky Bet Championship play-off race.
What followed was just as impressive as the cup triumph, with five different players on the scoresheet as Saints romped to a 5-1 victory.
“It’s crucial at this point of the season – you need to have players that are ready to perform,” the head coach stated.
“I think we are at a good moment physically and mentally, but we will need to close this game tonight, recover tomorrow and go again.
“I think when you come to this stage of the season you need everyone being ready to go.
“The group lives off a very good spirit, you can feel that. We travelled yesterday, and with the focus that we had in the morning session today, you could see that the boys were ready. That’s good to know for the games going forward.”
Saints return to St Mary’s with back-to-back home games against play-off chasing Derby, on Saturday (3pm BST), and relegation-threatened Blackburn next Tuesday (8pm BST).
After seeing the impact a raucous Saints crowd had on his team against Arsenal, Eckert is hoping for similar atmospheres to drive his team towards promotion.
“I think that St Mary’s was as lively as it has been in a long, long time on Saturday. We’ll try to give the same from the pitch and we hope that we get the same support from the stands again,” he added.
“It’ll be on us to confirm that performance again – I think that we keep going.”
Saints are back in action at St Mary's on Saturday when play-off rivals Derby County are the visitors (3pm BST). Tickets start from £25 for Adults and £15 for Juniors.
