RYAN Bertrand admits Saints will start taking the FA Cup a lot more seriously if they beat Wigan in the quarter-final tomorrow.

So far, Bertrand confesses, Saints have been using the knockout competition as a vehicle to raise team morale and confidence during their fight for Premier League survival.

“Yes, 100 per cent, all the way through. Even when we’ve been going to these games it’s about getting a good win to build a good atmosphere leading into the Premier League games,” he said.

“If we get through the Wigan game we’ll then start to take it a lot more seriously and thinking, right, one game to the final and on our day we can beat anyone.

“Until that time comes we’re fully focused on what we have to do.”

He continued: “That’s how we’ve been looking at it. We’ve been treating it as a game, say if we’ve drawn the week before, it’s nice to get a win and get that feel good factor back of a win.

“A win changes training grounds, changes teams and that’s how we’ve been approaching it and now we find ourselves one game away from Wembley.

“Who knows what will happen, you can’t get too carried away. We know the focus is the league but when we go and play the FA Cup we’ll go and try and win.”

Saints have beaten Fulham, Watford and West Bromwich Albion to reach the last eight, while League One Wigan have impressively defeated top-flight sides West Ham, Bournemouth and runaway leaders Manchester City at the DW Stadium on the way to this stage.

Bertrand is aware that Paul Cook’s team will pose a difficult challenge, but admits he’s not been paying too much attention to their giant-killing exploits.

“It’s the FA Cup, but I’ve not been paying too much attention if I’m honest,” he said.

“I’m busy focused on this (the Premier League), but they’ve deserved their place and beaten some really good teams to be there, so I’m sure they’ll give us a good test.”

Mauricio Pellegrino, who was sacked this week after a disastrous run of just one league win 17 outings, led Saints to this round of the competition.

But it is the Argentine’s replacement, Mark Hughes, in his first game at the helm, who is tasked with leading the club to the last four and to Premier League survival.

Saints were agonisingly close to ending their 42-year wait for major silverware in last season’s League Cup final, which they lost 3-2 to Manchester United last February.

Manolo Gabbiadini had a goal wrongly scratched off for offside in that game, in which Saints were the better side.

Now, Saints – despite their troubled campaign – have found themselves a game away from a Wembley semi-final and a chance of atoning for the pain of last term’s final defeat.

But, Bertrand has urged Saints not to deviate from the real task at hand.

“I think in the club’s DNA and the club’s progression from when they were in League One and rose back to the Premier League, I think it’s definitely on the club’s mind to win a trophy but not at the forefront right now,” Bertrand said.

“At this moment in time, it’s simply survival and establishing ourselves in the Premier League, rather than silverware.”