Saints look to take a big step towards securing a play off spot by beating Blackburn at St Mary's on Tuesday evening, can Tonda Eckert extend the unbeaten run and put 8 points between themselves and Wrexham in 6th.

Southampton have put their foot on the gas in recent weeks and soared into 5th place after despatching Derby on Saturday, now they need to blitz Blackburn and potentially put themselves in the position of securing a play off place at the weekend.

But it won't be easy, Blackburn have been in decent form themselves after 2 wins and 3 draws in the past 5 games, a run that has taken them 4 points above the relegation places.

Winning at St Mary's could put them on the cusp of safety, so they won't be going down with a whimper and they will be looking to repeat their win over us earlier in the season at Ewood Park.

Tonda Eckert is very likely to once again make a change or two to keep things fresh, at the back I would not be surprised to see Welington to get a start at left back and perhaps Nathan Wood in for Jack Stephens.

In midfield we could see Shea Charles start and out wide a change or two.

Up front Cyle Larin will likely rotate with Ross Stewart again.

But the good thing is that the squad these days is virtually interchangeable, the manager slots players in and out and the quality of the play does not drop.

Now we are coming into that final part of the season, where we just need to keep going and grind out results, not all the games can be like Wrexham, some will be like Derby and that is why Tonda was happy with the performance, he saw his side grind out a result against a tough side to beat.

Now we might well have to get down and battle again, but these days you feel that we are more than capable of that, we can win in style and we can win ugly.

But the focus has to be on 3 points and if we get those then we will jump above Middlesbrough into 4th place and then it is game on for the final 4 games of the Championship regular season.

It would also take us within a point of Millwall in 3rd and you would fancy our chances of catching them in the run in.

But the fate of our chances of automatic promotion does not lie at St Mary's on Tuesday night, but at Fratton Park 20 miles east.

If Ipswich win at Fratton Park then they would be on 78 points and still a game in hand on us, even if we beat Blackburn we would still be 6 points behind and it would take a massive melt down in their final 5 games for us to catch them.

Even if they lost at Fratton, it would be a tough task and for the moment our focus has to be in getting into 3rd place by the end of the season and having a prime position in the play off semi's and the home leg second.

We can only do what we can do and if we keep winning then this season can still have a happy ending.

All Photos Via Reuters