SAINTS legend Matt Le Tissier reminds players and supporters that the club are “touching distance” from the rest of the Premier League pack ahead of a “proverbial six-pointer”.

The St Mary’s side are left bottom in the division but head to the team equally facing trouble in 19th tomorrow, clashing with Leeds United at Elland Road.

Interim manager Ruben Selles won a big three points at Chelsea last weekend thanks to a free-kick from captain James Ward-Prowse, to put them just a further three adrift of safety.

However, less than half a dozen Premier League teams in 20th at this point of the season have gone on to survive the drop by the end of May.

Saints still have 15 games to play and Le Tissier, who was himself never relegated across a 406-game top-flight career with the club, knows just how huge Saturday’s contest in Yorkshire could be.

“I’ve been to most of the games and it has been a tough watch at times, but when you see these stats you have to look at the position those clubs were in,” Le Tissier told the Daily Echo.

“How many points were they from safety? We’re still only a few points away. That’s touching distance and that’s the thing the players have to focus on, you don’t get cut adrift and you give yourselves a chance right up to the last minute.”

He added: “If we beat Leeds on Saturday, the whole club will feel a hell of a lot different about our chances of staying up. Before the Chelsea game, I think everyone was down in the dumps and had resigned themselves to it.

“If you win at Chelsea and back that up with another result at Leeds, all of a sudden the season looks a bit brighter. It’s a huge game, it’s the proverbial six-pointer if there ever was one.

“I think the team that wins that game will have an incredible amount of belief that they can get out of trouble – so it will probably end up in a draw so both teams are still in the fight!”

Saints find themselves bottom after a tumultuous season which now sees a third custodian of the manager’s office at Staplewood Campus.

Ralph Hasenhuttl was sacked after nearly four years at the helm due to a continued slump despite summer investment and his hoped long-term successor – Nathan Jones – only took the team from 18th to 20th in his eight league games in charge, suffering seven defeats.

“What I was probably most disappointed with us after they appointed Nathan, they had the game against Liverpool and then a five-week break to prepare for the upcoming games before facing Lincoln City in the cup,” Le Tissier said.

“It was a run of games that we should have had a chance in but ended up only beating Everton, and that was it. It was a pretty disappointing return and he had those weeks with most of the players, although some were away, but most of them, and yet they came back and there just didn’t seem to be a gameplan.

“I thought, ‘blimey, you’ve had weeks to prepare for this game’. Brighton wasn’t great, and the first half of Fulham wasn’t great. That was disappointing and the board felt like they had to make a change to give us a chance.”