Southampton boss Ruben Selles is hopeful that an extended run in the FA Cup can be a “boost” as his side look to avoid relegation down to the Championship.

The Saints slipped to a disappointing 1-0 loss against Leeds United over the weekend at Elland Road. They will temporarily set aside their relegation fears to focus on the FA Cup third round on Wednesday night.

Selles will make changes for the midweek cup tie ahead of their Premier League game against Leicester City. But he has insisted that he will not take League Two side Grimsby Town lightly. g

“Every game counts and we will take the game like that,” said the Spaniard.

“We are going to be there fully ready to go and perform, hopefully to get a result and go through to the next (round).

“And then of course when you win and do the proper things and have a good performance and get a victory then it’s a boost for the next thing to come.

“Hopefully it will be a good one to keep going ahead of facing Leicester at the weekend.”

Following Southampton’s sacking of Nathan Jones, Selles’ reign began with a shock 1-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

But Saints sit four points from safety following an insipid performance in defeat at Elland Road.

“We want to go through and we want to win football matches,” continued Selles.

“If I allow relaxation in any part of the organisation for a game like tomorrow, that means I am taking down some of the credit that we worked for in the last two weeks and we are letting down our team-mates, so we need to keep the quality.

“We’re privileged to be in the cup and to be alive. And then we want more.

“The cup gives us the opportunity to show ourselves, to give something good for the fans that they have been waiting for for a long time now.”

Southampton have no fresh selection concerns. Injured pair Mohammed Salisu and Che Adams remain sidelined.

Grimsby boss Paul Hurst is eager for his players to “be organised” against Southampton.

“It might not matter what formation we play in truth, but we’ve just got to try and be relatively compact because you would expect that we’re going to have large spells when we don’t have the ball and we’ll have to be organised.

“One of the difficulties will be that we’re playing against better players who will have a great understanding of finding space in those tight areas, and also getting into one v one battles which they will have the edge on.”

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