More of the same against Plymouth, says Martin

Saints will be looking to make it seven consecutive home wins when they host Argyle, after they thrashed their Welsh opponents 5-0 on Boxing Day.

Martin wants to make sure there is no drop in performance levels against a Plymouth side who they needed a last-gasp goal to beat in August and who are on a four-match unbeaten run, even despite the recent loss of manager Steven Schumacher to Stoke City.

“They'll be disappointed to lose Steven, but they have a group of players that have been together for quite a while and they will rally round and they are rallying around each other,” said Martin.

“They work extremely hard. They are good, very good, as we saw earlier on in the season. So it will be a tough game and we have to make sure we bring the energy and aggression we did in the second half [against Swansea], because you need to follow this up now.

“If we're going to be really serious about what we want to do, we need to back this up. So yeah, it's going to be a good, exciting game.”

With only two days once again between matches, Martin added that the focus ahead of Friday night is ensuring the players recharge properly.

“I said to them, they're amazing, but now you need to recover as well as you possibly can for the Plymouth game, because we want to come here and you don't want to be, you know, after the Lord Mayor's Show, that kind of thing,” he said.

“You want to bring maximum energy again and we need to put in another performance like that.

“It's really that simple. This club demands that and we need to be relentless with that. And as long as they are and they keep bringing that energy, we'll keep enjoying it.”