Mark Hughes has called on Saints to ‘step up’ and finally end their St Mary’s hoodoo.

It’s just one win in 15 home league matches for Saints and with bottom of the league Newcastle this afternoon’s visitors the time finally seems perfect to bring that run to a conclusion.

Hughes is understandably desperate for his side to finally get over the line and to be able to forget about it and move on.

“We need to get rid of it,” he insisted.

“Every week I have to come in and you lot (the media) mention it.

“Until we do something about it and get it out of the way it’s not going to change.

“We are very conscious of it and that the longer it goes on the more of a bugbear it becomes for everybody.

“We have had opportunities in the past and haven’t taken them and it’s about time we stepped up and got the job done.”

With every game that passes it seems the pressure turns up a notch on the players to get a St Mary’s victory for the long suffering home support.

It is getting ever closer to being just one win in a year, with Hughes having secured that by leading Saints in their defeat of Bournemouth which helped keep them in the Premier League last season.

However, he doesn’t believe it is a mental block for the players.

“The record would suggest yes, but I don’t sense it prior to games or during games,” he reflected.

“Maybe there are periods when momentum shifts to the opposition because you expect that.

“Unless you are Man City you can’t be dominant for a whole 90 minutes in a Premier League game and we don’t have the capacity to do that.

“We know there is going to be momentum shifts but what’s happened when the momentum has shifted to the opposition almost without fail they have scored during those moments.

“That has affected our confidence sometimes and we have to be able to recognise when that momentum shifts and deal with it better than we have done.

“When we do that I think we will have more than enough to take games away from teams but it’s about dealing with momentum. When teams are having a go you have to disappoint them. “If they are trying things hoping to get back into the game if you have a lead keep knocking them back and eventually what little momentum they have been able to create is dissipated and you manage the game to a conclusion.

“That’s the key for me. We have got to manage the game.”