Russell Martin has urged his Southampton players to “make history” after equalling their best English Football League unbeaten run by thrashing Sheffield Wednesday 4-0.
Adam Armstrong scored and set up Che Adams, Ryan Fraser and Sekou Mara to mark Saints’ 19th league game without defeat. They moved into the automatic places for the first time since the opening day of the season, ahead of Ipswich’s evening kick-off.
The unbeaten run is only bettered in the club’s history by a 24-match spell in 1896 and 1897.
Martin said: “We are on an unbeaten run where I’m immensely proud of the players. It is incredible what they have achieved and we have to keep it going as long as possible.
“We have never gone ‘we need to chase Leicester and Ipswich’. We are concentrating on ourselves and we’ll see where it takes us.
“It has never been a conscious focus for us but I want them to go and make some history next week.
“I want them to be remembered for that. I want them to do it and it has been an incredible achievement.
“I told them that the biggest incentive was finishing the game in second, for how long who knows. But it is a reward for the hard work they have put in and we are really in the race and the hunt now.
“For the players to put themselves in that position of 20 games unbeaten in all competitions is amazing.
“The way they have done it has shown they are growing. It has been a pleasure to watch but it is now our job to keep them hungry.
“If they do it then we will be in with a really good chance of achieving what we wanted to achieve.”
Adams opened the scoring after collecting an Armstrong cross before rounding a defender and lashing into the bottom corner.
Armstrong got his goal on the counter after Stuart Armstrong fed him before the former Blackburn man brilliantly provided for Fraser and Mara to make it nine straight home victories at St Mary’s.
Martin said of Armstrong: “If he carries on going I will be happy either way.
“He’s been so good and probably playing in a position he doesn’t really want to play. He wants to be the number nine in the team but he’s playing a role he is playing so well in.
“The goals and the assists are what strikers get judged on but there is so much more to it than that with Adam.”
Wednesday boss Danny Rohl was previously an assistant at Saints and is crossing his fingers for his former employers in their automatic promotion hunt.
Rohl said: “It is a big challenge at the top of the table but when you see what they are doing they are a good team.
“Because of my past I cross my fingers for Southampton but it won’t be easy. If they do a job like today then they’ll stand a good chance.”
He added: “That was hard. Southampton played well. It was a game we had to perform well and make no mistakes.
“Everyone was convinced we could have taken something. It is different to three months ago when we came to games and thought there wasn’t a chance. We had the confidence to try something.
“This team is a different league to us. For us it is about staying in the league and for them it is the Premier League.
“All in all it was a deserved victory for Southampton.”