Jan-Paul Saeijs believes the battle for Championship survival will go to the last day of the season.

The Dutch centre half has slotted comfortably into Saints’ back four since his switch from Roda JC and is relishing playing his football in England’s second tier.

There is plenty of pressure on Saeijs to help deliver results quickly but the big defender is remaining patient, insisting there are plenty of teams still in the battle to beat the drop and it will remain that way right to the death.

He said: “It will definitely go to the end.

“I don’t think Charlton will make it now but the rest there are maybe 13 or 15 teams – it is that tight.

“I hope we get lucky in the next games and will go up in the table.

“I’m not worried about it because we have a very good team.

“All year we have said that but if we had stayed with 11 on the field against Swansea we would definitely have won the game.

“Good things are happening at Southampton now.

“We haven’t had much luck but we have to play Watford, Blackpool and Derby, teams just a bit above us, and when we win two games we will be 13th.

“Until the last match it will be hard and it will be exciting.”

Saeijs is pleased his team have overcome their lack of goals from earlier in the season but says his side need to cut out the basic errors that is still seeing them ship them at the other end.

“After Swansea everybody has confidence in the team,” said Saeijs.

“The strikers are scoring and since I came here we scored a lot but conceded goals and that should be the only worry.

“We have made too many individual mistakes to concede goals but the difference with before Christmas is we’re scoring.

“We have to beat them tonight and that will be the attitude.”

Saeijs is expecting a tough battle against Sheffield United but is optimistic Saints can get themselves a much needed win.

“I don’t know them very well because I am just here but speaking to the guys they have a good team with three or four tall guys.

“They are near the top of the table and want to get in the play-offs but we want to get out of the relegation zone.

“It will be a hard game but if we have the performance as we did last weekend it should be no problem for us.”

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