RUSSELL SMARTIN'

Saints chief: I'm always under pressure & will be branded a huge failure if we lose

- MIKE WALTERS

RUSSELL MARTIN admits he will be cast as a "huge failure" if Southampton come a cropper in football's equivalent of pistols at dawn.

But he believes it is "madness" that his season's work boils down to just 90 minutes tomorrow.

Saints will face a precarious summer financially if they lose the £200million Championship promotion duel, the richest game in club football, at Wembley.

And manager Martin, 38, did not shy away from the high stakes as he prepared for a reunion with Daniel Farke, the man who bombed him out at Norwich six years ago.

Asked if there was pressure from above to restore Saints to the penthouse at the first time of asking, he said: "The pressure is every day in this job. The pressure is that I will be deemed a huge failure if we don't go up on Sunday, or I will be deemed as really successful.