Norwich City will fight for a return to winning ways at St Mary’s Stadium on Friday night, but Dean Smith and his side won’t underestimate the quality of Southampton.
City are bottom of the Premier League ahead of the game, but Smith had little interest in Burnley’s win against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.
“I was watching After Life on Netflix last night, so I didn’t find out the (Burnley) result until after!
“When we won our back-to-back games against Everton and Watford, I said that there are big games coming up to play at Carrow Road. We’ve got a lot of teams who are in and around us. We know that we have to win games to draw other teams in.
“Burnley have done that in the last couple of games and you’ve seen what’s happened. We’re not concentrating really on other results, just on ourselves, and hoping to claw some of those other teams in.
“The table has had a real uneven look to it with a lot of the postponements in the Christmas period. Some teams have played a lot more than others and it’s only now that they’re all starting to catch up with the rearranged games. It will start taking a lot more shape when everyone has played the same number of games.”
Since Smith’s first game in charge of Norwich, a 2-1 win at home to Southampton, Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side have lost just twice in all competitions and are now unbeaten in their last four league matches.
“Southampton’s a real tough game,” Smith said. “It always is whenever you play them and they’re on a really good run of form. They recently held Manchester City at home and are playing some really good football.
“They had a really good win against Everton last week as well, so I’m really respectful of what Ralph has done at the club. My first game was against Southampton, so I’m sure they’ll be wanting to turn the tables on the result.
“Every game we go into is key now. I said that Liverpool and Man City wouldn’t define our season, but I also said they weren’t free-hits because we’re not afforded those in the position we’re in.
“Southampton is as tough as they come as well now because they’re on a good run of form, they’ve got good players and a really good head coach. We’ve beaten them once and we can take confidence and belief in that, but we certainly have to perform to go and get a result there.
“They’ve sold some really good players, so I’m really impressed with the job Ralph has done. They were top of the Premier League at one stage and then went through a terrible run of results.
“The class of a coach is when they can turn those results around and those performances around. They’ve never lost belief in the way they play and their identity and it’s always been good to see.”
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