Harwood-Bellis: We wanted to give them a performance

Saints produced an impressive final-day performance on the road, delivering goals and continuing momentum as they head into the play-offs.

“Yeah, it was really good,” Harwood-Bellis said. “Obviously, the fans came out in numbers. We wanted to give them a good performance and some goals, and luckily we did that.”

A fast start helped Saints quickly establish control, something the defender felt was crucial.

“[It was] massive,” he said. "We set out to go and win the game. We wanted to get that winning feeling back and, to be fair, we’ve done that really well.”

Harwood-Bellis also continued his own impressive goalscoring season, taking his tally to seven from centre-back.

“Yeah, very happy. I said at the start of the season I wanted to chip in with more goals."

“I had opportunities last year where I thought I was a threat, but now to kind of finish them off and get seven goals, and obviously I’m hoping to get a few more now.”

Harwood-Bellis was also quick to highlight the importance of Southampton’s travelling support, who packed out the away end despite little riding on league position.

“It shows where we’re at. It shows how much they’re backing us," he said.

“For a game where we’ve kind of got not much to play for, for them to come in their numbers the long way, we wanted to give them a good performance. We’re going to need them in the next two, hopefully three, games.”

With a home second leg in the play-off semi-finals now secured, Harwood-Bellis remains confident of the challenge ahead.

“It’s big for the fans, but for us it doesn’t really matter,” he said.

“We back ourselves to beat anyone. It’s going to give us an advantage, but we back ourselves.”