Eckert praises McKenna and 'remarkable' Ipswich

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Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert has praised Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna and described their ability to bounce back and compete for promotion as "remarkable".

The Tractor Boys were relegated from the Premier League along with Saints last season and have since established themselves as one of the dominant teams Championship.

These two sides meet on Tuesday night at St Mary's with the chance to go up automatically - Eckert's side are four points off the top two and Ipswich in the driving seat, sitting second.

"Ipswich have been a good team for many years now," the Saints boss told BBC Radio Solent.

"I find it quite remarkable if you're able to just reset after the summer. It's not easy to leave the disappointment behind and then go again after relegation.

"I don't need to say anything about him (McKenna) or how he sets up his team because he is one of the best. It's a very remarkable job that he's done."

At the weekend, Southampton's 20-game unbeaten came to an end as they were knocked out the FA Cup by Manchester City.

Despite having such a big game in the league so soon after their cup loss on Saturday, Eckert is confident that his side can bounce back themselves and return to winning ways.

"For most of the time we have tried to close the games very quickly on that afternoon or night," he said.

"We try to leave the emotions around that out of the system quite quickly and then you open up a new page and there's another game coming up.

"We were focused on the FA Cup while the other teams are playing in the Championship. We now have a clearer image of what the table looks like, but that doesn't really make a big difference for us and how we approach the game.

"We've done this for every single game that we've gone into. We'll do everything and put the best starting 11 out to win the game."