SAINTS manager Russell Martin is thankful his players have repaid him for allowing them to take Christmas Day off with a resounding home win.

Martin saw promotion-chasing Saints make it 16 Championship games unbeaten with a 5-0 victory over his former club Swansea.

Ryan Fraser netted a brace while Joe Aribo, Sam Edozie and Che Adams also struck to help Saints to their longest stretch without a league defeat since the 1921/22 season.

Saints, watched by owner Dragan Solak ahead of the January transfer window, moved up to third and are only four points adrift of the automatic promotion places.

It would have been bittersweet for Martin, who managed the Swans in 99 fixtures before switching to Saints last summer.

Speaking after the match, he told the Daily Echo: "They had yesterday off because they are human beings and I always preach how important family is. 

"You need to be able to separate reality from this so to say you then have to come in on Christmas Day doesn't work.

"As a player, I have done it every way. We have trained as normal on Christmas Day and it annoys everyone. 

"Coming in late, you can have the full day at home but come in a bit sluggish, so there is no right or wrong way. 

"I said to the players before that as we had Christmas Day off, I'll probably get asked about it or people will know about it. 

"It will only be the right thing if we win and if we don't, it would be the reason we lost. They had the day off and thankfully they repaid us.

"We were in on Christmas Eve and that was a long day to recover and prepare for this game. They also had to do some work at home yesterday.

"They weren't sat at home eating or drinking, or hopefully they won't anyway, they had to send a video of the stuff they did and had a GPS. They have been very professional."

Martin added: “We spoke about it as a group of staff for about an hour and a half. We went back to my initial feeling that we are in a great place and we have to trust them.

“I also wanted to see my kids on Christmas Day and this period is intense. Having one day to focus on your family and chill out will make a big difference in this period of games."