Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert fires victory warning at Middlesbrough
The Championship play-offs get underway this weekend, PA preview the game.
Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert knows his side will have to stem Middlesbrough’s flow at the Riverside if they are to take something from the first leg of their Sky Bet Championship play-off semi-final.
The Saints are the form team following a 19-match league unbeaten run which pushed them up into fourth place, having almost gatecrashed the top two with a late surge. Middlesbrough, meanwhile, saw their automatic promotion hopes checked after managing just two wins from the final 10 games.
Having watched his side slump to a 4-0 defeat on Teesside back in January, Eckert will not be underestimating the challenge posed by Kim Hellberg’s men in Saturday’s 12.30pm kick-off.
“They have been quite clear in the way they approach the game. I think it is quite clear to see where they have their strengths,” Eckert said at a press conference. “If they catch a good day and they start to flow, I think they are a good team in certain aspects of the game.
“(But) we come from some good weeks and months. In the end it is about getting our strengths on the pitch like we have been doing for many, many weeks now.”
With the second leg at St Mary’s on Tuesday night, Saints could be forgiven for thinking that heading back down south with a draw would not be a bad result. Eckert, though, insists that will not be in his team’s mindset.
“No, that is not the way we approach games,” he said. “At no part of the season has that ever been our approach to draw a game. We will go there to win. “We will do everything to win, and then we will see where we stand.”
Flynn Downes will be available again after serving out his three-match retrospective ban for violent conduct during their league win over Swansea. Eckert feels the 27-year-old former West Ham midfielder had been “getting better and better, game after game” before his suspension.
“I think the whole credit belongs to him,” the Saints boss said. “It has not been an easy block of his career. “There is not so much that you can do, it always comes down to the individual and that is why I think the performances that he has put in lately are all credit to him.”