'IF IPSWICH SCORE' LEEDS UNITED'S ELLAND ROAD ATMOSPHERE QUESTION AS SOUTHAMPTON SET STALL OUT

Southampton boss Russell Martin says his team owe it to the supporters making the long journey to Elland Road to make sure they give a good account of themselves at Leeds United. With fourth place in the Championship guaranteed no matter what the result on Saturday lunchtime, Southampton go into the match with the pressure off and with Martin admitting his side will look to try some new things out.

However, while a victory is not essential, Martin wants to see a good performance from his team and has called the game brilliant preparation for the play-offs to come. Martin is unsure of what sort of atmosphere will greet his side when, as he expects, Ipswich take the lead at home to Huddersfield Town in a game that will consign Leeds to the play-offs if the Tractor Boys win. But while the atmosphere facing his team is unsure, the manager is positive about what his team will get out of the game.

"I think the importance of it is we'll have a lot of people going up paying a lot of money to travel and watch the game. We owe it to them and to ourselves to finish the season as well as we possibly can," said Martin. "It's a great preparation for the playoffs.

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"It'll be a good atmosphere. Or maybe it won't. The minute Ipswich score at home to Huddersfield, I don't know. I think it'll be brilliant preparation for us, and we're getting ready for the two biggest games of our season. But that means this game is so important for that in terms of stuff we want to see on the pitch.

"We've had some time to work on the training pitch this week, which has been so good because everyone was exhausted. The energy's been so different this week. We had 10 or 11 games in 32 days or whatever it was. It was relentless. So we've hardly had any time on the training pitch. It's very much been play, recover, get ready for the next one."

2024-05-03T14:37:48Z dg43tfdfdgfd