Saints must vis­it each of Leeds Unit­ed, Leices­ter City and Ipswich Town — on Mon­day — before the league table is set­tled in May.

Rus­sell Mar­t­in’s side are cur­rent­ly nine points off the auto­mat­ic pro­mo­tion places but boast games in hand on those above. 

The fix­tures against the top three mean a pro­mo­tion des­tiny can still be decid­ed by Southamp­ton — rather than rely­ing on oth­er results. 

Beat­ing all three will put Saints in the dri­ving seat and top per­former Walk­er-Peters believes it is pos­si­ble. 

“It puts it in our hands almost,” the 26 year old told the Dai­ly Echo.

Kyle Walk­er-Peters has made 34 league appear­ances this sea­son (Image: PA)

“I think it’s for­tu­nate for us that we get to go and play them and show we are bet­ter than them.

“We have a chance to go and win those games and I think it could be an advan­tage for us.

“How­ev­er, we are not think­ing about Ipswich yet, the next game is Mid­dles­brough and that is just as impor­tant.

“We need to win that game tomor­row and hope­ful­ly, that will start us on a good run.” 

The impor­tance of the run-in is not lost on Walk­er-Peters, who faces an uncer­tain future with expect­ed trans­fer inter­est in the sum­mer. 

Saints have 10 games in just over a month to deter­mine their league posi­tion for the next sea­son with­out the need for play­offs. 

“It’s the same as the whole sea­son though, you go into every game want­i­ng to win,” he said. 

Southamp­ton’s suc­cess­ful win­dow for me is defined by what did not hap­pen.

Keep­ing Walk­er-Peters is the best busi­ness pos­si­ble. Adams too. Over­all, don’t think the squad is huge­ly improved.

It did­n’t need much. My quick and weary-eyed ver­dict on the mon­th’s busi­ness.#Saints­FC

— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) Feb­ru­ary 2, 2024

“I am look­ing at these last 10 games as every game being a final. If we win them all, we will get pro­mot­ed and that’s the goal. 

“The man­ag­er has def­i­nite­ly been try­ing to get our fit­ness up a bit in the inter­na­tion­al break so he is aware of the phys­i­cal demands.”

Walk­er-Peters con­tin­ued: “We are aware of it as a squad and we have a big group of play­ers.

“I am sure the man­ag­er will rotate when need­ed. Every­one in the squad is trust­ed and every­one will be need­ed.” 

Walk­er-Peters is an impor­tant returnee for Mar­tin, hav­ing been ruled out of the last two match­es through injury.

Saints man­aged dra­mat­ic wins over Birm­ing­ham and Sun­der­land despite the first league min­utes missed by the full-back this sea­son. 

Asked about his fit­ness, Walk­er-Peters con­firmed: “I feel fine.

“I am glad to be back and I am look­ing for­ward to get­ting back out on the pitch, hope­ful­ly we can win these 10 games. 

“I did­n’t need the rest. I was pret­ty angry that I got injured, but it’s part of foot­ball and it hap­pens some­times, I am back fit now.”