'Cut out the nonsense' - Leeds United promotion rivals boss lays down the law amid key injury concern

Russell Martin has called on his Southampton side to 'cut out the nonsense' ahead of their clash with Preston North End on Wednesday evening. The Saints required a dramatic injury time winner from Joe Aribo on Saturday as they beat Birmingham City 4-3 at St Andrew's.

That result brought an end to their two-game losing streak, having fallen short against Hull City and Millwall on home soil, with both games finishing 2-1, while they were beaten 3-1 by Bristol City last month, too. It means that in their last six Championship games, Leeds United's promotion rivals have shipped 13 goals and that's a record Martin is less than pleased with.

As such, he's calling on his Saints outfit to get back to basics at the back, eliminate the mistakes and become hard to beat again ahead of their clash at St Mary's this week.

"There was so much good football and some incredible performances, but we conceded three rubbish goals - and that has to stop," Martin said after the victory over the weekend. "We can’t keep having to score that many goals to win a game, especially after some of the stuff the lads played.

"It was incredible. But we conceded really poor goals and that has to stop. At 3-2, we should never let them in with 10 men, so very frustrated, and then fortunately for us, the subs have had a very good impact again, which is nice.

"I was so happy with so much of the stuff. If we cut out the nonsense at the minute in our own box, because that’s what it is, then we have a real chance.

"The identity of the team is so clear - what they’re doing, they’re moving for each other, they’re playing for each other. The balance at the minute between both boxes is not quite good enough, so we need to make sure we start defending properly. It’s not been good enough recently and the players know that."

Southampton were without Kyle Walker-Peters on Saturday due to the injury he picked up against Liverpool in the FA Cup fifth round and, despite seeing fears of a long-term absence allayed, it remains to be seen whether he will be involved this week.

"He won't be very long out," Martin has confirmed. "It was really good news with Kyle. Hopefully [he'll be] involved in one of the two games [after Birmingham], or both, but if not he'll definitely be back after the [international] break so it was fairly positive news."