Martin looks ahead to tough Norwich test
Southampton head to Carrow Road on Monday hoping to complete a perfect Christmas and New Year period, although manager Russell Martin says there will be a very tough opponent standing in the way of achieving their goal.
Saints’ promotion push has gathered further pace in the past week, with wins against QPR, Swansea and Plymouth in the space of seven days, and they now conclude their intense festive run with a trip to Norwich on January 1st.
The teams drew 4-4 in a thrilling encounter at St Mary’s earlier in the season, in what was only the second Championship match of the campaign for both, but since then a reasonable amount of separation has occurred between the sides, with Martin’s team third, on 51 points, while the Canaries go into this fixture in 13th place, with 34 points.
But, with David Wagner’s side having picked up ten points from their past four home games, the Saints boss is expecting a significant examination as they play one more league match before attention shifts to the FA Cup.
“We now have another test on Monday, which will be tough, really tough,” said Martin. “They're in a really good place, Norwich.
“It's a tough place to go, but we will go there hopefully with real belief and momentum to keep being the team we want to be wherever we go.
“That was the challenge [against Plymouth], to keep being the team we want to be, and we were, albeit for six minutes maybe not so much, but I’m really grateful for what [the players have] given us.
“They’ve been amazing and we have one more go to really go at it on Monday to really be the team we want to be, ahead of the cup game, and we’ll make sure we do our best to bring that energy on the pitch.”
