Jan Poortvliet believes Saints are on the verge of giving someone a hammering.

Despite only having scored once in their last four league matches, the head coach remains convinced that the goals will start flying in – hopefully at Preston tomorrow.

In all bar the Swansea defeat, Saints have created openings.

But some poor finishing and a lack of confidence has cost them dear.

As a result, Saints have scored just 12 goals in 14 Championship games – only fellow strugglers Barnsley (11), Nottingham Forest (11) and Doncaster (7) have scored fewer.

He said: “I have worked with teams where we have won games 5-2, 4-0 and you think afterwards ‘it was an easy game’ but the fact is you just scored easily.

“You have to work hard to get there but when it is there you have to provide.

“I hope one of these days it will be there because I think we deserve it.

“One of these days the ball will go in the net because there is nothing wrong with how we play in most of the games, creating chances.

“The only thing is to put it in.

“I pray that it will be tomorrow. It could be.

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