LEE BARNARD says Southampton must beat Town tonight if they are to maintain any hope of gatecrashing the League I play-offs.

The pair are separated by five places and 17 points, with Saints starting this season on minus 10 because of their financial problems the previous campaign, when they dropped down from the Championship.

Boss Alan Pardew has put together a talented team, with Barnard the latest addition after his transfer-window switch from Southend United.

His 11th-placed side have suffered just one loss in their last 12 games, the 4-1 FA Cup fifth-round setback at home to bitter rivals Portsmouth.

They go into tonight’s clash on the back of a 5-1 thumping of Walsall at St Mary’s on Saturday, when Barnard scored twice.

That took his Saints tally to four in eight games and his overall season’s haul to 21.

One of those came against Town in the opening-day 2-2 draw at Southend, but he was shut out when the Shrimpers came to the Galpharm on January 16, his last outing for the Essex side.

“We’re aiming for the play-offs so we’ve got to believe, keep playing and keep getting results,” said the 25-year-old Romford-born player.

“All we can do is keep winning and then we might be able to get in there.

“We’ve got a great team, a great squad and we’re good attacking-wise.

“The boys are buzzing now, but we’ve got another big game tonight.

“We need to put in the same kind of performance.

“Huddersfield are a good team and they are where we want to be, so we have to beat them to get anywhere near.

“If we play like we did against Walsall then I’m sure we’ll win.”

Barnard said Southampton were desperate to defeat Walsall in order to send out a statement of intent to the rest of the division.

“We were 3-1 up at half time but we didn’t want to just sit back and see the game out – we wanted to make it more and make a statement and I think we did that,” he added.

“We knew we needed the result and not only did we get a good result, we got a good performance as well.

“Scoring two goals, especially in front of the home fans, is nice and hopefully there are plenty more to come.”

The St Mary’s meeting is one of two in League I tonight, with Bristol Rovers hosting basement side Stockport County in the other.

Rovers, 3-2 winners over Colchester on Saturday, are ninth, three places and 13 points behind Town. Stockport are five points adrift at the foot.