Southampton boss Russell Martin makes promotion vow amid battle with Leeds United and Ipswich Town

Southampton boss Russell Martin believes his side will bounce back amid their recent slip-ups. The Saints have lost back-to-back games to fall five points behind Leeds United in second and Ipswich Town in third.

The Hampshire side went 25 unbeaten to rally their way up the Championship table, but they will now go into the final two months or so playing catch-up. That's a concern for many Southampton fans, given the form of Leeds in second, in particular, but Saints boss Martin has cut a calm figure as he plots a way for his side to return to winning ways.

"We'll be fine (in the promotion race)," Martin said. "We've got eight weeks left of the season and still have the chance to be incredibly exciting and get rewarded but, like we did before, we have to stand up and be counted now. "We should score but don't. It's nothing to do with tactics. If people want to talk about all that stuff, it's not that. We conceded two rubbish goals. How we don't deal with the free-kick, I don't know. Maybe there is an offside, I haven't seen it but the feeling from the analysts is that there is. It's a floated cross and it loops into our goal. For the second goal, we don't clear it twice and it ends up across our box for a penalty. That is the story of the game, nothing else - not tactics."

Effectively, Southampton need to stay within two points of Leeds to keep things in their own hands, given they play the Whites on the final day of the Championship season. Concerningly for the Saints, though, they have a significantly inferior goal difference compared to the Whites at this stage, and the same applies to Ipswich, who are currently level on points with Leeds.