José Fonte believes the team should take heart from recent performances going into a tricky away game at Blackpool.
The Portuguese centre back anticipates a spirited contest against Ian Holloway's play-off chasing side, but believes Saints have proved they are capable of getting a result at Bloomfield Road this weekend.
"My first thought is that it will be a very hard game," he told Saints Player.
"They're a very good team, and in the first game at St Mary's we knew that it would be hard, but they came here and made it even harder than we thought, so it's going to be another massive game for us and we just need to prepare ourselves as best as we can.
"We know that offensively they are very good, and they have good players like Kevin Phillips who are very experienced and scoring a lot of goals. They have good players on the wings as well so we have to be aware that they are a force coming forward.
"Lately we have shown that we are very good defensively, so it's going to be an interesting battle.
"You have to be prepared for everything and we try to prepare for everything the best that we can to contain their forces."
Saints currently lead the Championship by five points, and although that figure could be cut ahead of kick-off with Reading and West Ham playing each other earlier in the day, José knows that another win will put his side closer to promotion.
"I would lie if I said it was something that I have not thought about, of course we are proud to be top of the league and we worked very hard for that. We always aim for the best and the best is to be top of the league and we want to keep it going, because we're proud of it.
"The team is full of confidence. We're top of the league and we've been playing well lately, been defending well so obviously the confidence is high.
"We just need to go there and prove that we are as good as we have been."
One thing Fonte would also like to achieve is to register his first goal of the season, and the towering defender admits he's surprised as anybody that he hasn't found the back of the net this term.
"I think Jos is scoring all the goals for me!
"It's something that I have been looking for but it hasn't happened this year. I've been trying and trying, and some efforts have been cleared off the line, sometimes I should have done better, but the important thing is the team and we have the best attacking record in the league.
"I just need to keep clean sheets and I'll be happy with that, but I will score one goal before the end of the season, that's for sure.
"Everyone gives me stick about it obviously, but I will be asking Rickie Lambert in the last game, if he doesn't need it to let me take a penalty.
"The main thing is, we're looking forward to the run-in, and hopefully we will keep going as we have been."
source Saints FC