Brighton head coach Graham Potter has hailed Saints as “one of the teams of the season” and believes they are reaping the rewards of sticking with Ralph Hasenhuttl.

Saints boss Hasenhuttl endured a tough start to the campaign, although his future at the club was never in doubt.

The Austrian managed to inspire a remarkable turnaround at St Mary’s and has his 12th-placed side well safe of relegation ahead of Thursday’s Premier League clash with Albion.

Potter, who had a brief spell with Saints during his playing career, is full of admiration for his fellow manager and believes his former club are benefiting from the patience of their board.

“They’ve done really well. The last few games, they’ve been really good from lockdown, started well,” said Potter.

“All credit to them, I think they could have made an easy decision – a decision that a lot of football clubs would have made in terms of changing after a really damaging result.

“But credit to Ralph and his staff and the players how they’ve used that to galvanise them, used that to improve.

“I think they have been one of the teams of the season, to be honest, in terms of just recovering from that huge setback.

“Ralph has done a fantastic job.”