Southampton approaching kitchen-sink time, says Mark Hughes

Mark Hughes admits his Southampton side are approaching the "kitchen sink" stage in their bid to stave off Premier League relegation.

The struggling south coast club remain four points adrift of safety after playing out an uneventful 0-0 draw against Leicester at the King Power Stadium.

Swansea currently occupy 17th place and can stretch the gap on Southampton this weekend when they play their game in hand, albeit away at champions Manchester City.

Hughes had few complaints about the outcome of his side's latest failure to record maximum points, extending their run without a league victory to eight games.

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"I think 0-0 is a fair result," he said. "I don't think there were many clear-cut chances. Arguably we had the best one where the keeper makes a good block from [Shane] Long, but we didn't create enough chances of note.

"Leicester have a lot of energy and pace, so maybe it's understandable apprehension was in our play in terms of getting out and affecting the opposition more readily.

"But the point shouldn't be underestimated. We played better against Arsenal and Chelsea but didn't get anything. We've had reward for a big effort collectively. This sets us up for the remaining games.

"We've just got to really go for it and we're heading towards a situation where we can't hold back. At some point we'll have to throw the kitchen sink at it."

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Southampton didn't attempt a single shot on target until the 57th minute - Long denied by Ben Hamer from close range - and they only attempted one more in the game, through Charlie Austin in the 90th minute.

The Saints still need three points from their remaining four league games to even match their worst-ever points tally in a Premier League season (32 in 2004-05, when they finished bottom).

Hughes admitted he will assess his players before making a decision on any changes ahead of his side's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley this weekend, but he acknowledges the importance of the next Premier League outing at home to Bournemouth a week on Saturday.

The Welshman added: "Nobody knows the importance of this point, but we've got a key game at the weekend in the FA Cup and the one following that against Bournemouth is going to be huge.

"It's still very much in our own hands. We've done really well in terms of performances in the last two games without any reward so tonight we felt we needed to take something out of this one.

"In the other games we have ahead of us, we've got a case for going a different way and we're going to need maximum points going forward.

"It's a quick turnaround so it may well be that we have to freshen up the starting XI and see where it takes us. We need everybody and we'll have to use all the resources at our disposal."