Francis Benali is hoping for the chance to help Saints establish themselves in the next bracket of the Premiership.

Manager Glenn Hoddle has challenged the players to prove they can break the trend of traditionally fighting against relegation and that is music to the ears of the club's longest-serving player.

Benali's aggression and passion for the shirt has annually helped the team to safety but now he wants to prove he can take them higher than that.

He said: "After so many years at the club I have had enough of fighting relegation battles. I want us to be more than that.

"I have always said I would love to win something with Southampton and that desire is still there.

"In recent years success has been staying up but to my mind success is winning a trophy and getting into mid-table if not higher.

"We have shown we can beat anyone on our day and we do raise our game against certain teams. We have to consistently perform well and grind out results throughout the whole season.

"We need to lift our game more often and perform better away from home and that should make a big difference to our final position."

Saints will have to raise their game from Saturday's dismal display at home to Leicester if they are to avoid another Merseyside mauling to follow last season's 7-1 defeat.

After sitting out the defeats by Derby and Leicester, Benali is hoping for a recall to the side on Sunday in what is almost his second city. He has plenty of family living in Liverpool and they will be out in force to cheer him on if he plays.

He added: "It is always special playing there. Anfield has a special feeling about it and at least we are going there not needing points. The fact that Liverpool do should make it an interesting game as well as a hard one!

"However we will be fired up by the atmosphere and our own pride because of the way the last two or three games have gone.

"The manager has been trying to drum into us not to let the season fizzle out just because we are safe. We have to concentrate on moving on as individuals and as a team and this is a chance to show we can do that."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.