Goals from Cyle Larin, Ryan Manning and Cameron Archer eased the Saints to a seventh successive win, a run which leaves them just three points off second place.

Eckert said: “It’s always a test, you can never go into a game thinking it just falls on to you and no competition, you need to grab every single game and I think there’s many teams that don’t want to play us at the very moment.”

Eckert was able to rest five players from the 2-1 win over Derby at the weekend, including Brazilian talisman Leo Scienza, but his team suffered no loss of momentum.

He added: “I think no matter who we put on at the moment, they’re all ready to perform. It’s quite an easy decision at the moment to pick a team, because they’re all ready to go.

“It’s always a combination of where we are at, what the other team might give us, where we need what types of quality on the pitch. I think, quite an easy decision today.”

It was a first defeat in six games for Blackburn, who sit four points above the bottom three with three games left.

Boss Michael O’Neill said: “We can’t control what the other teams do. We’re in control of our own destiny.

“I said that after the Birmingham game and that’s all we’re focused on. We have to make sure we try and take something from the game on Friday (at home to Coventry).

“Then we have an away game at Sheffield United and then we have the home game against Leicester.

“So, there’s nine points to play for and we’ve got to do everything possible to try and take as many of those points that are available.”

This fixture was rearranged after Southampton reached the FA Cup semi-final, giving injury-hit Blackburn an intense schedule for their final four games.

O’Neill added: “I do think it disadvantages us, to be honest, given we’ll have four games in 10 days and then we’ll not play for 10 days until the final game of the season.

“The recovery period given where the squad is at this minute in time is extremely challenging.”