Southampton manager Russell Martin believes he has the backing of the board, despite a poor run of form in recent games.
After starting the season well winning three of their opening four games in the Championship, they have now lost their last four, including a 4-1 loss at home to Leicester City and a 1-0 defeat at home to Ipswich Town.
This run of form has caused concern, with Saints dropping to 15th in the table. Martin, however, feels he still has support from up above.
When asked if he believes the higher ups at the club are behind him, he said: “I think so, yeah.”
“There has been a lot going on over a period of time and they have made a huge amount of changes at the football club,” he told the Daily Echo.
“We should not have lost the amount of games we have already but I don’t think they expected some magic wand to come in overnight.
“The club have embarked on a journey and I mean that with us, not the players, with me, with Jason, Phil and so many new people,” Martin added.
“It’s a different way of behaving, which people don’t see if you’re not there every day, of course. The club had a huge disappointment last season and has embarked on a different journey.
“When you are trying to do something completely different, it is never easy. It is time for everyone to be really brave, stick together and get through it together. Or you don’t, and that’s football.”
Russell Martin reflects on Middlesbrough defeat
Martin also reflected on the 2-1 away defeat to Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon, saying: “We spoke before the (Boro) game and we started really well. It’s a bad reaction to scoring a goal and when you’re on a bad run of form it changes a bit.
“If we were where we want to be, when we go 1-0 up, with the atmosphere of the crowd and everything, we would suffocate the other team.
“We would move the ball but instead we retreated and shrunk as a team. The intensity, body language and rhythm without the ball changed.
“It surprised me. It was the first time we scored first in three games and we had won each time we scored first, so it did surprise me – we have a lot of work to do.”