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Tonda Eckert wants even more as Southampton enter playoffs

Tonda Eckert will not be resting on his laurels in the Southampton dug-out, as the Saints enter into the Championship playoff positions.
Southampton v Norwich City - Sky Bet Championship
Southampton v Norwich City - Sky Bet Championship | Robin Jones/GettyImages

Southampton supporters are in dreamland at the moment with Tonda Eckert making Championship management look rather effortless.

Entering the dug-out with the Saints stuck in a miserable relegation predicament, the German has completely transformed the fortunes of the St. Mary's outfit, in such a short space of time.

The 1-0 victory over Norwich City now means the South Coast giants are unbeaten across their last 13 games in all competitions, which is a magnificent streak of matches considering how ruthless the league can be.

Of course, the battling nature of the slim win has also seen Eckert and Co. leap into the coveted playoff positions, but the hard work is far from over.

Not to douse this article with too much realism, for a second, but the Saints have wobbled at points this season, with the late December and early January stages of the campaign seeing them win just one match across eight games in all competitions.

They have since turned an emphatic corner, with a fearlessness coursing through their veins in statement victories at Fulham and Coventy City.

Still, nothing is sealed as of yet, with a huge clash versus Wrexham, who have been shoved to one side due to the Saints' win against Norwich, coming in early April.

Eckert has called for focus, with a desire for even more wins to be tallied up, to ensure the playoffs are reached, and for this run to be viewed as a precursor to the main event of Premier League football being clinched.

Eckert's comments after the Norwich win

The German hailed his team's performance at the full-time whistle as "resilient" as Daniel Peretz - who is Southampton's man-of-the-moment currently in goal - made even more game-altering saves, with seven saves in his back pocket at the end of the tense contest.

Further noted as being a win that displayed Southampton's "character and determination" by the match-winning Finn Azaz, it's clear that the entire group at the moment are singing off the same hymn sheet, even when games are tricky and evenly fought.

Eckert won't want too much back-patting, though, as he looks ahead to - hopefully - more wins to come, as the relentless Championship schedule chugs along.

He said, at the close of the 1-0 victory: "We make sure that we recover and then we go stronger on Saturday, a big, big game for us coming up and then we have a couple of days of rest.

One last push, we prep on Friday, and then a big challenge on Saturday, but we make sure that we're ready to go."

The big game in question is Oxford United at home this coming weekend, with a complacent performance playing into the hands of the relegation-threatened visitors, who need wins to climb to safety.

This is where Eckert's approach will work, as he galvanises his group into believing every match - between now and the close of the season - is a special, one-off cup-final.

The worry will be that tiredness and lethargy might soon seep in.

But, the togetherness of the camp should pull them through, with Eckert desperate for more wins to come, to try and make their wild promotion aspirations real.

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