Boss Dean Smith admits Leicester are ‘in the last chance saloon’ in their bid to ensure Premier League survival.

The Foxes go to Newcastle on Monday three points from safety with two games left.

Everton’s 1-1 draw at Wolves on Saturday means the fight for survival will go to the final day, regardless of the result at St James’ Park.

Victory will take the Foxes out of the drop zone and above the Toffees on goal difference and Smith is aware of the magnitude of the game.

“We are pretty much in the last chance saloon with a game against Newcastle,” he said, with the Foxes hosting West Ham on the last day on Sunday.

“Disappointment and frustration are the two words I’d say I’ve seen. But we are running out of games to put that right and the players know that.

“When I came in here for the last eight games, if someone had said to me ‘If you win at home the last game of the season (to survive), would you take it?’ I probably would have.

“Hopefully we can get there but we have to get a performance and a result against Newcastle.

“There are things we’ve looked at, things we’ve done. When there is no pressure on the ball, you don’t push up like we did for the first goal against Liverpool.

“There’s an awful lot we’ve done in the classroom in terms of video analysis and we’ve done some stuff on the pitch as well.

“I’ve always said to the players that mistakes are going to happen, from both teams. People are going to make mistakes and you need a helping hand from your team-mate once you make that mistake.

“We probably haven’t been in the positions to help each other out as much as we would like.”

The Magpies need a point to wrap up Champions League qualification while Leicester know two wins from their final two games will seal survival, barring a huge goal difference swing in Everton’s favour.

Smith added: “It’s just a big game. We know what’s at the end of it. I don’t think there’s anyone here who’s not aware of that so our focus is to go there and put in as good a performance as we can.”

Dean Smith defended his under-fire Leicester players as they fight for their Premier League lives.

The Foxes go to Newcastle on Monday knowing their top-flight future hangs in the balance as they sit two points from safety with two games left.

If Everton win at Wolves and Nottingham Forest avoid defeat against Arsenal over the weekend Leicester will need to win at St James’ Park or they will go down.

The squad – with one win in their last 14 games – has been accused of lacking fight in their relegation battle but Smith has given them his support.

“I don’t need to pay homage to the players, I’ve inherited a squad and not brought any of them in,” said the boss, who saw the Foxes limply lose 3-0 to Liverpool on Monday.

“I can openly criticise them if I need to, I don’t think I need to and I choose not to because the work ethic I see is there.

“The numbers I get from my performance department prove to me it’s there. The thing which is missing is keeping clean sheets and making fewer mistakes in the defensive third.

“It’s out of our hands because if other teams get the results there’s nothing we can do. We just have to concentrate on Newcastle and get the win.

“If we get the performance we are capable of and minimise mistakes, not a problem.

“We are in a position we don’t want to be in. Our job is to get out of it. Our job hasn’t changed from eight games (when he came in) to two games.

“If you look at it realistically it was going to be tough to get points from Manchester City and Liverpool. Other games we would have expected to get points.”

Kelechi Iheanacho (groin) and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (ankle) are expected to resume training on Saturday after missing the Liverpool defeat while Caglar Soyuncu (hamstring) and Danny Ward (dislocated finger) remain out.

It is a fourth straight Monday game – meaning Leicester will know all the results before they play – but Smith insisted other scorelines will not impact his approach.

He added: “We’re preparing for Newcastle now, I don’t want to suddenly change tactics with what we’ve been working on for four or five days.”

Captain James Ward-Prowse has “full confidence” Southampton can make a swift return to the Premier League following the pain of relegation.

Saints’ fate was sealed by Saturday’s listless 2-0 defeat to Fulham – a club-record 24th league loss in a single season.

England midfielder Ward-Prowse has been with Southampton since the age of eight but is already being linked with a summer move away from St Mary’s.

The 28-year-old, who insists he is “not thinking too far ahead” regarding his own future, is optimistic Saints will bounce back from surrendering the top-flight status they have held since 2012.

“(I’ve) full confidence, I think the club’s been there and done it,” he told Southampton’s website.

“The squad that we’ve got now is incredibly young and they’ve got a lot to learn.

“They will have learnt a lot from this year and next year I’m sure the club will be doing everything they can to be back in the Premier League.”

Southampton were precariously placed for much of a miserable campaign, having continually occupied the bottom three since early November.

Second-half goals from Fulham pair Carlos Vinicius and Aleksandar Mitrovic condemned Ruben Selles’ side to the drop with two games to spare.

Spaniard Selles was the team’s third manager this term following the sackings of Ralph Hasenhuttl and Nathan Jones.

Ward-Prowse concedes warning signs were present for a long time and admits Saints ultimately went down to the Sky Bet Championship with a whimper.

“It’s something, in all honesty, we’ve been fearing for a little while,” he said.

“Over the last couple of years we’ve not been performing at the level I believe we should be and I think this season’s caught up with us.

“There’s a way to lose games, there’s a way to maybe fail in sport and I think the way we’ve done it this year, that’s the disappointing way.

“I don’t feel we’ve really gone down with a fight and given everything we can.

“I feel for the fans because they don’t deserve to see what we’ve produced this season and that’s the sad thing.”

Victory for Fulham was a club-record 15th in a Premier League season to tighten their grip on a top-half spot.

Winger Harry Wilson, who was involved in each of the Cottagers’ goals on the south coast, hopes to increase the impressive points haul of 51 going into a home game against Crystal Palace and a trip to Manchester United.

“It’s not something I was aware of but it’s something we’ve earned throughout the season,” he said of the record.

“We’ve shown that we can win different ways, so to get 15 wins and the record is great.

“We’ll definitely enjoy them (the final two games) but we also know there’s a lot to play for and we want to make sure we get two wins.”

Substitute Mitrovic returned from his eight-match ban with a bang by heading home seven minutes after replacing fellow goalscorer Vinicius.

The Serbia striker was punished for grabbing referee Chris Kavanagh during his side’s 3-1 FA Cup loss at Old Trafford in March.

Wilson is already eyeing revenge against United on the final weekend following the heated cup exit in which Mitrovic, Willian and manager Marco Silva were sent off.

“We were really good for 70 minutes and we all know what happened,” he said of that game.

“We feel like we kind of owe them one in a way because we felt on that day we maybe should have left with something.”

Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui has warned his players they are in the middle of a “war” as they attempt to ease themselves clear of the scrap for Premier League survival.

Lopetegui’s men sit seven points above the drop zone ahead of Saturday’s clash with Aston Villa, in which victory could be enough to assure them of a place in next season’s top flight.

However, last weekend’s 6-0 drubbing by unlikely Champions League contenders Brighton left them shell-shocked, and their Spanish manager knows there could be a lot of hard work still to be done.

Lopetegui told a press conference: “We need points to achieve our aim. We had this need the last match and Saturday too, in the same way a challenge.

“It’s about the will to win because this is our aim and we have to achieve our aim. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be long, and we have to be ready in the good and bad moments.

“We are in the middle of the battle. We are in the middle of the war, like a lot of teams. That’s why we have to put out 100 per cent energy in the next match. This is football so we have to be ready until the end.

“Saturday we have a challenge and I’m sure the fans are going to understand the importance of the match, we are going to need this help, this environment, this energy in the bad moments. I am sure the fans are going to help a lot in the next match.”

Wolves had eased their fears with wins over Chelsea, Brentford and Crystal Palace either side of defeat at Leicester, but a traumatic day at the AMEX Stadium prompted concerted soul-searching during the days which followed.

Lopetegui said: “We were not happy, of course, but it sometimes happens. We analysed inside with the players and we have to be ready for the next challenge full of energy, full of confidence, because we are fighting for a big aim, a very hard aim, with a lot of teams involved.

“We are going to be there until the end, so we have to be ready for the next match.”

Lopetegui will make a late decision on defender Nelson Semedo, who limped off at Brighton with a knee injury which has forced him to miss two days’ training this week.