The fixtures just keep coming Southampton's way at the moment, and they keep winning whatever clash is in front of them.
Staggeringly, off the back of the 3-0 win against Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday night, the promotion-chasing Saints have now won seven games on the bounce, a feat last pulled off by the South Coast giants in February 1981.
A playoff spot in the ever-changing Championship now looks to be secure, with Tonda Eckert and Co. now eyeing up a last-minute surge into the automatic promotion spots, surely.
Southampton could be automatically promoted
The South Coast dominated the headlines in the Championship on Tuesday night.
Indeed, while Southampton's comfortable victory over the Riversiders was a standout result in its own right, Portsmouth getting the better of Ipswich Town 2-0 was an even more eye-catching outcome at Fratton Park, with Pompey in a relegation battle, whilst the Tractor Boys occupy second spot.
The two results hand-in-hand mean Eckert's men are ony three points behind Kieran McKenna's outfit, with only a few games left to play.
Amazingly, Southampton could be level on points with Ipswich momentarily this approaching weekend, as the Saints play against Swansea City on the road on Saturday, before the Suffolk outfit face Middlesbrough in a tough test at Portman Road.
Eckert won't be fazed at all by all this non-stop drama, with his words at the close of the 3-0 win humble as always when simply stating that his boys did a "very good job" again.
Stating that he is also isn't fearful of rotating, he will no doubt be keen, regardless, to try and get Finn Azaz back into the first team fold in Wales, as he was completely absent against Michael O'Neill's visitors, through injury.
Why Eckert will want Azaz back for Swansea
The German managed without his star-man against Blackburn, but he won't want the Irishman to be sidelined for the foreseeable future, with some vital games ahead.
Indeed, the 25-year-old playmaker has been a machine this season under the guidance of Eckert, with 11 goals and eight assists proudly next to his name. Alongside these numbers, he has also created 15 big chances, when fit for the Premier League aspiring side.
Therefore, the 33-year-old will want to play him in some capacity against the Swans, with Eckert notably upbeat about Azaz's chances of featuring against Vitor Matos' men after the Blackburn win, by stating that he is "quite positive" regarding his recovery from his knock sustained versus the Rams.
Amazingly, though, despite his red-hot form as of late, Azaz has never actually scored against the Welsh side from five career appearances against them.
Indeed, when featuring for Plymouth Argyle, Middlesbrough, and the Saints over the years, Azaz has consistently drawn blanks when facing the Swans, but he has still managed to be on the winning side two times, across those five career matches.
He will hope he can change this unwanted statistic if he passes a late fitness test to feature on the road, with the late addition of Azaz surely spurring the Championship's most in-form team on to an unprecedented eighth win on the trot.
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