Southampton had a great October, winning 3 and drawing the other 2 of their 5 games played in the Championship and that has led to manager Russell Martin being nominated for the Championship manager of the month award.

At the start of October although Saints had beaten Leeds United in their final game of September, that was on the back of 4 straight defeats and some Southampton fans on social media were highly critical of Russell Martin and his possession football game.

They predicted that the team would be nearer the relegation places than the play off spots, yet a month later and suddenly Saints have found their form and pushed themselves right back into the play off spots again.

That has earned Russell Martin the honour of being one of four Championship managers nominated for the Sky Bet Championship manager of the month award.

Joining the him on the shortlist are Middlesbrough’s Michael Carrick, Leicester’s Enzo Maresca and Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna.

Martin must be in the running. Maresca & McKenna already had a good start under their belts and Carrick having joined the pair in beating Saints in that 4 match losing streak perhaps had his moment in the final games of September.

Whereas Russell Martin had to cope with having to revamp his squad and then implementing his way of playing with new players, he has done that well and put together a 7 game unbeaten run which encompasses a win either side of October.

Hopefully the Saints manager will win the award, which will be a fitting tribute to the hard work he has put in, not only getting his squad winning games, but in winning over most of the sceptics of earlier in the season.

The winner will be announced tomorrow Friday 10th November

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 08:51 - Nov 10 As for the other candidates; it's easy to be MoM when you are top of the table, and knocking over bottom-end teams but even Leicester and Ipswich have had hiccups in recent games, and although Middlesboro have improved enormously since their sketchy win over us, (and we were sitting 15th after that Boro defeat) we've now gone 7 games undefeated , and looking better sitting in 4th place and only had the luxury of fielding the same start side on one occasion, and in 5 of those games we played top-end teams despite an ever-changing line-up, and also seen a dozen players scoring goals so far. Russell Martin must also take credit for his inspired use of subs. as Ryan Fraser has won us 6 points after coming on late from the bench. We have certainly shown the greatest improvement in the last month. Well done Russ.

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Bowlercow added 20:36 - Nov 10 I am still finding long term Saints fans who are not enjoying this style of play but are obviously happy with the results I'm really happy with the way he sets up and find the style quite exciting WBA are probably one of the stronger teams but then so we're Leeds, PNE and Stoke when we played them
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