Jose Fonte insists Saints ‘need to be true to themselves’ to get out of their current rut.

Saints skipper Fonte is trying to lead by example, even playing through the pain barrier to captain the team to the 1-1 draw against Aston Villa after having to watch from the stands with a knee injury as his team were battered 6-1 by Liverpool.

Fonte will this weekend come face-to-face with the man who signed him for Saints, with a trip to Alan Pardew’s in-form Crystal Palace next up in a hard run of festive fixtures.

Saints go into the match without a win in their last four, and Fonte believes now is the time to stand up and be counted.

“We just need to be ourselves,” he said. “We need to be true to ourselves.

“First of all we have to work hard and work hard for each-other and our quality will take care of the rest.

“We just have to make sure that we have the basics right. If you get the basics right, if you lose the ball you run after it, you get back into your position and stay compact.

“Then when we attack we know our quality will do the rest.”

Fonte was desperate to get back on the pitch as soon as possible to help his teammates, with the Portuguese international taking his duties as captain very seriously.

“The fact that I was on the pitch (against Villa) after I couldn’t run on Wednesday and on Thursday I struggled to run at more than 50 per cent , it tells you how I take it,” he insisted.

“I take it very seriously and I feel like my job is to try and help the team no matter what.

“The fact that I opened it (his injury) up again, it is what it is.

“Someone has to do it.”

He added: “Even if I have to open it (his cut knee) up again, I don’t mind.”

Saints created a raft of chances in the opening stages against Villa but having been struggling for a confidence a little in front of goal.

“Of course it’s frustrating but for the strikers they’re playing well up front and we make a mistake and we concede, it’s a balance and to win game of football you have to get the right balance,” reflected Fonte.

“Unfortunately we didn’t have that cutting edge up front but, having said that, they did try and they ran and they chased.

“They helped the team in different ways but it wasn’t to be our day to score goals, although we had the chances we missed them.”

Her continued: “We’re in a good position still.

“Of course we want to be higher up the table but I wouldn’t say there’s a lack of confidence.

“We have confidence, it’s just that it isn’t happening at the moment.

“On Saturday, I’m sure we will approach it on a way that the strikers show that they can score because they have been working hard as well.”