SHANE Long has urged Saints to channel an Irish spirit in their bid for survival in the Premier League.

Saints need the luck of Irish more than anything to stay up, considering they’re currently 18th with seven games left and have won once in 18 league outings.

However, Republic of Ireland international Long, never one to shy away from hard-work on field, believes an Irish mentality will help Mark Hughes’ side as they try and get a grip on survival.

According to the 31-year-old striker, the Welsh manager has started to change the players’ way of thinking after giving them some home truths after their miserable 3-0 defeat to West Ham.

“With Ireland we out-work teams and we get stuck into teams and don’t give them a moment’s peace,” Long said.

“It’s been the case since I was a kid. In Irish sports it’s the way we do things and something I have a lot in in my game and try to work hard for the team.

“At the weekend it didn’t work for any of us but the manager is trying to instil that in training, in different possessions and things, trying to get players closer so they can affect the opposition.

“It’s about a mentality thing and after watching that video on Monday and seeing what we were like, it’s set into the lads who have taken that on board.”

Hughes made his players sit through the entire video of the West Ham game, giving sorry Saints a few home truths.

“It was [painful] but we needed to analyse it and learn from it. Sometimes managers just say ‘right, that’s in the past’ but the gaffer took the right step and pointed out what we did wrong and how to improve,” he said.

“Players had to take a few things on the chin but it was the right way to do it.

“Players don’t take it personally. It’s a job at the end of the day. If you do something wrong you’re going to be told.

“Players look at it to improve themselves and the gaffer’s got good knowledge of the game and he knows what he’s talking about.”

Long came on as a half-time substitute for the anonymous Manolo Gabbiadini with Saints already 3-0 down at the London Stadium, helping Hughes abject side to a slightly-improved second-half showing.

The former Hull and West Brom man wants to be more involved now, believing he can have a big say in Saints’ hopes of staying up, and is adamant the players truly care about the club.

“It is massively stressful, people say players don’t care, they’ll just get a move in the summer, but that’s not the case,” he said.

“Everyone is really digging deep to try and turn things around but it’s hard when confidence is low.

“We just need that one result to pick things up and get things going again.

“Up to two or three weeks ago I thought we too much talent in the dressing room and we’d easily get out this situation.

“But after the last two results time is running out, so we need to turn things round very quickly.

“The change of manager’s helped a lot. Confidence is picking back up and training is a lot, lot better.

“It’ll take time to get his thoughts across to the team and get the way he wants to play across to the team and the sooner that happens the better.”

He continued: “I had a hamstring injury about six weeks ago and kind of fell out of the team from then and been working hard to try and get back into the team ever since.

“The gaffer seems to like me. He likes how I play and I’m trying to prove my point in training to get into that starting eleven.”