SAINTS have stunk the place out this season but Cedric Soares reckons he can ‘smell’ Mark Hughes’ side growing just in time for their life or death Premier League run-in.

It might just well be the stench of old shinpads, but the Portugal international senses the Saints dressing room could still yet come up smelling of roses from their increasingly desperate league situation.

“To be honest, I think we are growing every week and the group is staying more together, even if we don’t win,” he said, as Saints prepare for a crucial home game against neighbours Bournemouth on Saturday.

“We lost against Chelsea, lost at Arsenal and drew against Leicester but the group is there and is getting better and you can smell it when you are in the dressing room.

“You can say if we were doing this a few games ago then we’ll still be on time but we are still on time, from my point of view.

“We are understanding better the system, understanding the new ideas of the new manager and this is clear on the pitch. We can see it happening, it’s just being a little more experienced in some moments.

“We have been naive a bit this season, made mistakes, we’ve been missing that extra bit.”

Saints are four points adrift of safety with four games remaining and the 26-year-old right-back has urged Hughes’ side to go and ‘play like it’s our last game’ against Cherries.

“We’ve played now for a few years together and we know how the Premier League is. It’s not easy and once we’re in this moment we will be stronger mentally. We maybe happy in the end,” he said.

“We know it’s not an easy moment for anyone – for us, the fans, but, trust me on this, we need to go on the pitch and play like it’s our last game.

“We must fight and have the personality to keep the ball, have the personality we have had in other years. This will give us the points we need.”

Eddie Howe’s men are motivated to finish the season strongly, after four games without a win.

Bournemouth are 11th in the top-flight and have drifted of late, losing their last two and drawing the two before that.

But, especially given they can virtually send Saints down to the Championship with victory, the Cherries will be very much up for the St Mary’s showdown.

Cedric, however, is not interested in Bournemouth’s motivation and insists he is putting as much importance on this game as he did the European Championship final, which he played in during Portugal’s successful Euro 2016 campaign.

“I do not even think about how they are motivated because we just need to be more so than them,” he said about the Cherries.

“This is very obvious, we have to be more motivated than them because we are between life and death and if you face it this way there is no more motivation we can have.

“This is for me like playing the final of the European Cup. This is a big moment and we need to fight.

“I know the fans will be anxious but we need to play our football. We can win with motivation but it’s not just about this. It’s about intelligence in how we approach the game and this is up to the big players and to who has personality in these big moments.”

Cedric knows the gravity of the Cherries game.

“It’s an important game. I was saying 15 games ago that we need to face them as a final,” he said.

“But, definitely, this one is a crucial moment and mathematically it’s not but mentality-wise it’s very important.

“I think we need to face it like it’s a final, where you do whatever you have to do to win.”

Prior to joining Saints in 2015, as a young player at Sporting Lisbon, Cedric was involved in a relegation scrap while on loan at Coimbra outfit Academica in 2011/12.

The Briosa had won just once in 22 games (Saints have won once in 21 league outings) and needed two victories in their final two games to beat the drop.

They achieved this and even won a domestic trophy, the Taca de Portugal.

Cedric admits this experience means he will not give up on beating the drop, even if Saints’  outlook is looking bleak.

“I’ve been in a very similar situation twice. I was on loan to a smaller team, Academica, one year when I was 19 from Sporting,” he said.

“We hadn’t won in something like 20 games and we needed to win the last two and we won. We won, stayed in the league and won the cup after that.

“We ended up staying in the league and ended up doing one of the most amazing seasons Academica ever did, because we stayed in the league and won the cup.

“Football is like this. People don’t realise but we need to believe until the end. This is important, while it’s still possible, we have to.

"I know it’s hard, if you look to the fixtures it’s hard, if you look to mathematics, it’s also hard.

“But it still depends on us… and that it depends on us is a point in our favour and then, if you put the right mentality in the team, I'm sure we will win.

"We must face Bournemouth like we faced Chelsea or Arsenal."

About the season with Academica, he added: “At that time we had a good group but when you don’t win you start to go down, down, down, it’s sometimes difficult.

“But we had this reaction on time. We had this reaction and the same I can see here.

“Nobody is feeling good. Nobody is happy with the situation. We know that we need to act: that is obvious.

“The only solution we have is to fight back, there is no other way.

"A lot of people gave up, a lot of people would have different reactions than my own, but the only way we can do it still is to be strong personalities.”