JIM Steele is backing Saints to set a new St Mary’s record against Hull City – in memory of the late, great Bill Ellerington.

Steele, man of the match in the 1976 FA Cup final, is a regular at St Mary’s and hopes to see the club make it ten Premier League wins in a season there for the first time on Saturday.

He believes that would be the perfect way to honour fellow Saints legend Ellerington, who passed away last week, aged 91.

Steele said: “As well as being a very good player Bill was a coach when we won the FA Cup so he was a great servant to the club as well as being Saints mad.

“I’m sure the club will have a minute’s silence for him and get the players to wear black armbands. But what he would want more than anything is for them to go out there and get another win.”

Saints won nine home games in finishing eighth in the Premier League in 2002-03 and equalled that record when they beat Burnley three weeks ago.

Steele reckons Hull’s visit is the first of a very winnable run of six games ahead of the last-day visit to Manchester City.

He said: “You never know, we could win all seven. Looking at our run-in we have the easier of the three going for the two Europa League places so I think we’ll finish well clear of Spurs and Liverpool.

Ronald Koeman’s done an incredible job; the back four’s been exceptional and the midfield is playing really well.

“I just hope Alderweireld, Wanyama and Schneiderlin stay beyond this season. They’ve all been fantastic and we don’t want to be a feeder club.

“Our problem is scoring goals, Graziano Pelle is a good target man but he could do with a bit more support. We don’t have anyone getting near enough to his knock downs at the moment.

“The likes of Sadio Mane, Shane Long and [Eljero] Elia are too wide for my liking when Pelle gets the ball.

“But having said that he was unlucky not to score against Everton on Saturday and so was James Ward-Prowse who I really hope gets his first goal before the end of the season.”

Saints should at the very least improve on last season by finishing in the top seven, an incredible achievement given the exits of last summer.

But Steele, who lives in West End, reckons the club can comfortably finish in the top five after predicting a 17-point haul from the last seven games.

“We should beat Hull,” he said. “Steve Bruce used to come into my pub in the Cotswolds but I think we’ll have too much for his side.

“I think we’ll continue our good record against the bigger teams by beating Spurs at home.

“And assuming Man City have already qualified for the Champions League I can see us winning there on the last day.”