CHARLIE Austin admitted his belief that he could be an asset to Saints never waned during a frustrating first few months of the season in which he questioned whether his future was at St Mary’s.

The 28-year-old striker had been a frustrated impact substitute before netting a brace on his first start of the Premier League season in the 4-1 win over Everton.

But Austin insists that he’s been working hard to keep himself in Mauricio Pellegrino’s thoughts and knew “what would happen” if he got a chance to impress.

"It is hard but the belief is there," he said, when asked if it was hard to keep faith while he was out the starting team.

"I've no doubt I'll score goals for anybody, whether it be at Southampton or somewhere else; because that's the way I was thinking.

"Moving forward now we'll just see what happens. We've got a big six weeks now coming up for the football club."

He added: "I had to bide my time, see what happened. I didn't know whether it (his chance) was going to come but fortunately it did and I'm delighted to score two.

"I believe in myself and I knew if I got my chance that what would happen."

Austin is now Saints’ joint top-scorer on three goals with Manolo Gabbiadini, having netted his first strikes from open play in 364 days in the Toffees thrashing.

The former QPR man, who joined Saints for £4m in January 2016, admits he’d never been in a situation during his career where he had to battle to get into the starting eleven.

He said: "It's not been easy. It's the first time in my career that I've had to hold back, sit and watch - bide my time.

"I had to work hard, get my head down and luckily enough I've reaped the rewards."

When asked if the January transfer window had crossed his mind, he added: "You just have to bide your time and assess the situation.

“You can only control the controllables - that's the thing. I don't pick the team, I can only keep putting thoughts in his head and that's the last few weeks I have.

"[Pellegrino] told me I wasn't going to play against Liverpool and I was disappointed but I understood his reasons that it was for the team.

"[Against Everton] I was just lucky to get the start.”

Austin is now relishing more opportunities at Saints and pushing up further into the top-half of the Premier League.

He said: "It puts us in the top half of the table now. We've closed that gap. It was a five-point gap up to Watford and if we can close that off that would be great.

"We've got a big game Wednesday night against Manchester City. It's a bit of a free hit for us I think because we won it takes the pressure off a little bit.

"Then we've got a big derby coming up on Sunday."