Ralph Hasenhuttl says he will not believe Saints are safe until they reach 40 points.

There was a party atmosphere at St Mary’s following the 3-1 win over Wolves with results elsewhere also going Saints’ way to open up an eight-point gap to the bottom three with just five games remaining.

Supporters were confidently singing ‘we are staying up’, and looking at the table it is very hard to disagree with that analysis.

However, Hasenhuttl insists he will not celebrate survival until Saints secure the four points they need to hit the magic 40 mark.

He said: “Absolutely pleased with the win. It was a massive one for us.

“You can read the table and we do also and we are always speaking about the 40 points and as long as we don’t have 40 points I don’t celebrate staying in the league so there is still a long way to go.

“I think we showed a very good performance. It was a good start from a team that was hard for me to select.

“I gave Sims a chance from the beginning and I think he did it very well. First goal he was exactly in the position I want him to be with his deep runs and being the guy who can come in behind the last lines. That was the way we wanted to put troubles on Wolverhampton.

“After the early 1-0 we were not brave enough. Everybody was thinking there was a long way to go and we were on the backfoot and that’s not the way we want to play and defend and it was not good.

“It was not a coincidence that they got the equaliser because I could feel we were not sharp enough, not brave enough, not attacking enough.

“After the equaliser I tried to wake them up again and in the break I was very loud although we were 2-1 in the lead to make them more aggressive because we had to.

“We deserved this win because we were the better team, scored three times and could have scored more and fantastic that Longy made a goal after the set-piece, the second one in a row and he’s a real goal getter now.

“I am happy for the team and the substitutes we made helped us to defend very well and so I think we didn’t make so many mistakes today.”

Hasenhuttl and the team enjoyed extended celebrations with the fans after the win and the Saints boss smiled: “I was working for this from the first day. We stand together and we march together.

“After the feeling the pressure is off after the game because you won and celebrating together with the fans is the most beautiful moment of the weekend.

“What we want to do is give them nice weekends with a lot of enjoying of our game and give them back what they gave us during the 90 minutes with support and helping us win the game.”