JAN Bednarek wants to start looking up the table after climbing out of the relegation zone.

Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Norwich was enough to see Saints move above the drop zone by going a point ahead of Everton.

And with the St Mary’s outfit travelling to Newcastle for tomorrow’s Premier League encounter, the Polish international is eyeing a third victory on the bounce. 

“We need to stay humble at the moment and work even harder and really cover back because it’s a very tough period but that’s what we want,” said Bednarek.

“We have a lot of games and we want a lot of wins and we will really work for it.

“When you are in the relegation you are a little bit more worried but that’s how it is.

“Now we are out, hopefully, we can start looking up the table instead of down. If we work as hard as we did against Watford and Norwich, then we will be fine.

“We have so many good players and it depends on us to reach it if we are going to be safe.

“I think we cannot look in the past at what happened, we just need to focus in the moment and see what’s going to happen.

“We have three days to recover and to prepare for the game, where we will try and get three points away from home.”

Bednarek was also quick to pay tribute to striker Shane Long.

The Republic of Ireland international made just his second top-flight start of the campaign earlier this week.

Long continued to harangue the Norwich defence, which Bednarek claims allowed Saints’ players a chance to recover.

The defender added: “We cannot forget about Longy – he’s doing the dirty job for Ingsy, creating space.

“He’s creating space and giving us a breather in defence.

“He is a really nasty player for defenders, I think it’s really difficult to play against him, he’s an important player for us.”

Long is out of contract next summer, with Bednarek hoping the striker will be able to sort out a new deal before leaving on a free.

“I’m not the one who is deciding but hopefully he will stay with us,” continued the 23-year-old.

“He is a very experienced player in the team and we need that.”

Since the international break, Saints are yet to lose a game.

This includes a draw at Arsenal and the back-to-back wins over Watford and Norwich.

Bednarek feels as though the improvement has come because the team have started getting the fundamentals right.

He said“I think we just started doing the small things better and found our way.

“I think we just need to keep the base and keep working. We just need to stay humble as I said before.

“It’s important for us to not worry about anything, to work hard and push each other forward because then we would be fine.”