ONE of the biggest encouragements for Saints over the last week has been goals for players other than Danny Ings.

Saints’ top scorer was as lively as ever against Spurs and on another day could easily have had a hat-trick.

But when he put wide a free header shortly before the equaliser it looked like it would not be Saints’ day.

You cannot keep Ings out of the game though. Even when he is not scoring he is influencing games and he set up the goal that keeps alive Saints’ hopes of progressing to the fifth round.

Saints are ripe for a cup run and their recent away performances mean they have absolutely nothing to fear as they prepare to go to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Wednesday.

Especially as goals are now being scored by a variety of players.

Sofiane Boufal is Saints’ fifth different goalscorer since Ings’ winner at Leicester two weeks ago.

The Moroccan’s first goal in more than two years - only his second since his goal of the season against West Brom in October 2017 - came at the end of a week in which Nathan Redmond and Stuart Armstrong scored in Saints’ best away performance of the season at Crystal Palace.

It followed the first-half goals for Shane Long and Jan Bednarek before last week’s collapse against Wolves.

After scoring twice in three games and playing such a key role in the recent upturn, Armstrong will be a big miss if his hip problem keeps him out of Saturday’s trip to Liverpool, as seems likely.

But it will reassure Hasenhuttl to know that goals are coming from a variety of players.

Ings’ Leicester winner was his tenth goal in as many starts but no-one expected him to maintain that strike rate. Three matches, including a 20-minute run out at Palace, is hardy a barren run.

But the extraordinary standards Ings has set this season mean he has gone his longest period without a goal since Hasenhuttl’s November ‘reset’.

It is only a matter of time before he is back on the scoresheet.

But with goals now being shared around, Ings’ load has been lightened ahead of two away games that can show just how far Saints have come in the last two months.