Kelvin Davis has challenged his teammates to rise to the challenge of playing back-to-back ‘must-win’ games.

The Saints goalkeeper is targeting a third successive St Mary’s clean sheet to keep the play-off dream alive ahead of this weekend’s trip to fellow promotion hopefuls MK Dons.

Swindon currently occupy the sixth and final play-off berth, have not been out of the top six since the turn of the year and arrive in Southampton fresh from a 1-0 win at Brighton.

But Saints need to beat them to stay in contention.

“We walked into the ground on Saturday knowing it was a must-win game and we walked out after beating Leeds knowing we have another must win game against Swindon,” said Davis.

“We’ve got an opportunity to make ground on them and then we go to MK Dons and play Hartlepool at home so we’ve got an opportunity and we’re working very hard to make sure we achieve our highest possible position.

“Swindon are in there for a reason, they’ve picked up points from good play and being resilient so it will be a big test for us.

“We thought we might make ground on them this week and we haven’t done, they keep picking up wins from tough games and we need to make sure they don’t tonight.”

After losing at Tranmere, Saints have had their confidence renewed by beating Leeds.

“We’re playing very well at the moment, especially at home as the results have shown,” continued Davis.

“We kept another clean sheet on Saturday so defensively we’re getting things right and could have had a couple more goals as well.

“We’ve worked very hard and that’s what you have to do to achieve things. Our preparation and everything else has been spot on “It’s a bit of a pat on the back for everyone at the club.

“When you work as hard as you can and you get rewards it makes everything feel worth it. We want to continue that winning feeling.”

A settled and solid back four of Jon Otsemobor, Radhi Jaidi, Jose Fonte and Dan Harding has been a significant factor in Saints’ recent performances, although Otsemobor is unavailable tonight after limping off after 15 minutes of Saturday’s win.

“We’ve worked hard,” said Davis. “And we’ve become a much more solid team.”