Wesley Hoedt believes Saints need to win four of their remaining five games to avoid relegation.

Saints have been cut adrift in the Premier League’s bottom three and are five points off of nearest rivals Swansea.

With just five games of the season remaining, Saints need a dramatic reversal of fortunes in order to maintain their top flight status.

Hoedt thinks 12 points will be necessary to stay up, which is a big ask for a side that has won just five times in the league this season.

He said: “We showed the last two games against good opponents that we are there but it’s important to take points.

“There are 15 points left and we need 12 of them. That’s up to us.

“I don’t know if it’s realistic but you have to set your goals.

“I think that’s what we need and if you see how we played the last two games we deserved more points but it’s the Premier League and they don’t give points away so easily.”

Saints travel to Leicester tomorrow night for a game they really must win to keep alive realistic hopes of survival.

They need to bounce back quickly from the sickening blow of conceding three goals in eight minutes to throw away a winning position against Chelsea last time out.

“It was hard to take the loss because we played really well for the first 70 minutes and in ten minutes we gave it all away,” admitted Hoedt.

“It was hard to take because especially if you watched the game before against Arsenal I think we deserved more as well, so that’s four points we throw away in two games.

“I think if you see how good we played for the first 70 minutes in my opinion Chelsea had nothing to say in our stadium. We had a chance for more goals as well and we didn’t take them.

“They made an amazing goal and we just completely collapsed and this is something that cannot happen at this level of football.”

Hoedt insists the squad still believes they will stay up and identified the key to beating Leicester.

“I think so (we can stay up). If not it’s not even worth playing any more.

“I think the whole team showed in the last two games that we are still there and we have to show that in the last five games against opponents that also need points but we need them more.

“We need to keep calm and we need to play and for sure we don’t need to concede so easy because then it’s difficult to play.

“We played with three at the back the last two games so we need more confidence, and be more compact like we showed the first 70 minutes against Chelsea and that’s what we have to show against Leicester as well.

“We need to go for the win whatever happens.”