Mark Hughes has admitted Saints are still a “work in progress” but is encouraged by his team’s development in recent weeks.

Saints head to Wolves tomorrow in search of their second league win of the season and aiming to return to form after a difficult defeat at Liverpool last time out.

Hughes has had just a couple of months to work with the majority of his squad after the summer break, in which he landed the job permanently.

Results are still proving hard to come by, but Hughes has seen enough to be encouraged that things are heading in the right direction.

He said: “We are a work in progress.

“I think we are still trying to do the right things and for the most part I am pleased with our general play. A lot of things we are attempting is work we have done on the training ground.

“I can see that being embedded in the guys and they are starting to take on board the information we are giving them and it’s no good doing it on the training ground if you can’t transfer it to the pitch at the weekend.

“I am seeing good signs in that regard but on occasions a little bit of the luck in sport you need to be successful has gone against us.”

He added: “I know that we are progressing because I see it on a daily basis.

“This team is a team that wants to progress, to get better and the age group helps as we have lots of players in the 22-27 bracket that are still of the feeling they can get better individually and collectively. They want to learn about the game and what’s going to make them better players.

“For me as the coach and the manager it’s really stimulating because you sense they want to learn and get better.

“When you have that environment and those players that’s a really strong thing.”

Hughes insists he and the squad need time to adapt, but that is not easy in the pressure cooker environment of the Premier League where patience is generally in short supply.

“It’s difficult to say (how long it will take), every group is different,” he admitted.

“Groups of players can take on information readily, others find it more difficult.

“Some find change easy to embrace and others find it more difficult.

“Time is what you need to get guys doing things automatically on the field of play rather than overanalysing things. The more automatic things they do the better the side becomes, movements become more fluid and that comes with repetition of work on the training ground and in the game itself.

“That tells you it needs an element of time and the opportunity to ensure your ideas are implemented.”