NATHAN Redmond never doubted that Saints could turn around their miserable form in the Premier League – and has pledged “it’s just the start” ahead of the League Cup final next weekend.

The England Under-21 international breathed a sigh of relief as Saints got back to winning ways at Sunderland last weekend, writes Peter Howard.

But Redmond believes that despite losing six in seven Premier League games prior to the trip to the Stadium of Light, Saints were never in danger of getting dragged into a relegation dogfight.

Now, the former Norwich man has his eyes set on Wembley and Manchester United in the League Cup final.

“We had a tough run before Christmas and this is the first week since then that week had a full week of training together to work on tactics instead of going game after game,” he said.

“That's no excuse, we've got a good squad and we should have done better recently.

“But this has been coming and it feels like a bit of a relief.

“It's just the start and we need to build on it.

“It didn't play on our minds because we kept focussing on the next game and the little improvements we could make, correcting the mistakes.”

The 22-year-old played twice a week regularly in the Championship with Norwich and Birmingham City.

But he admits that Saints’ hectic season – in which they've had a Europa League group stage campaign, the League Cup run and FA Cup games on top of the usual Premier League games – has offered its own unique challenges.

“It has been tough, but I played in the Championship for three or four years, so it’s no different to me,” he explained.

“Although going from Europa League to Premier League and to the League Cup it’s a bit different.

“It has been challenging and when we look back on this season we would have played at Wembley and hopefully fought for a top eight finish.

“We’ll look back and hopefully it’ll be a better season once we start getting these wins and start climbing up the table.”