With nine games left Brighton sit in 15th place on 33 points, three above the 16th-place Saints.

Currently the bottom three is made up of Cardiff City (28 points), Fulham (17) and Huddersfield Town (14).

Victory on Saturday will help move Ryan's club ever closer to safety and confirming their place for next season.

"It's a massive one for us," the Socceroo goalkeeper told FTBL.

"There hasn't been much about talk about the City game [FA Cup semi-final] yet. We're still in a position where we need to get as many points as we can, so our full focus is on that. In my experience in the league thus far it's been rollercoasters of momentum.

"You seem to get a few wins in a row and put yourself in a good position, and then there's periods of where you can go five, six, seven games where you'd get a win. We had that unfortunately over the period of mid-January to the end of February, we had that period there.

But I think down to our good showing early in the season and being able to have the character to turn that around most recently it's still put us in good position to finish the season strongly.

"We've managed to switch that momentum now and had three wins on the trot. So we'll be looking to make it a fourth one - especially being at home - and try and continue that trend of making the Amex a fortress."

Brighton go into the game on the back of three victories in a row in all competitions. In contrast, Southampton have won two of their past five league fixtures.

The Seagulls will face Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley next weekend.

But first up is a huge match against the Saints, and Ryan says his side is in fine form heading into their visit to the Amex.

"The result on the weekend can be pivotal in the fight to survive," the Australian said.

"We're going to go out there confident and take the game to them. I'm confident if we do that, and play to to the level that's served us so far this season successfully, then we can add Southampton to the list of scalps we've got this year."