DEFENDER James Bree insisted Saints are confident of their promotion chances ahead of welcoming Watford to St Mary's this afternoon.

Southampton head into their second home game of the week off the back of beating high-flying Coventry City 2-1 on Tuesday evening.

Watford are also in good form having picked up results against Leeds United and Ipswich Town in recent weeks.

Interim boss Tom Cleverley is yet to taste defeat since taking over after Valérien Ismaël was dismissed in March.

Southampton will need to improve in front of goal to become the first team to hand Cleverley a defeat. 

Bree explained they are aware of where they need to improve, saying: "There are lots of good teams in the Championship.

"Watford can be a testing team on their day. If we can go out there and play our football, then that should take care of itself.

"I think Russell is confident that we can go up. We know if we play our football then we can hurt teams.

"We’re always brave on the ball, it’s just about creating those chances and switching it up a little bit sometimes.

"When we do that, we can cause carnage. The gaffer’s confident, the boys are confident, and we’ll see what happens.

"We would all like to score more goals. We’re obviously creating the chances. Sometimes we might score five, and some days they might not go in."

Saints have also struggled to prevent the opposition from scoring in recent games. They've conceded 17 goals in their last nine outings in all competitions.

Watford's Cleverly is aware of their defensive frailties and explained what his side needs to do in order to win at St Mary's.

"You have to be very good out of possession and very disciplined," he said. "They are the best possession team in the league and also they’re very good at pressing teams.

"You have to be really efficient with everything you do with concentration levels at an absolute maximum, for 95 minutes or 100 minutes.

"But they do give you a chance. We go there with a clear game plan to win the game, not to just not get beat but to win the game. We have the belief we can do that."