RALPH Hasenhuttl believes his beard is another symbol of Saints’ transformation in recent weeks.

The Austrian decided after the West Ham defeat that he wasn’t going to pick up the razor to see if it brought his team luck.

Saints then went on a barnstorming run, winning six out of their next eight games in all competitions.

“Normally I am not that superstitious, I must say, and we lost against Wolves and it’s still here, I did not shave it,” said Hasenhuttl.

“Maybe you can speak about the symbol of our transformation in everything, also in my mind or in my face.

“At the moment I love it and will keep it. I think my family like it!"

Hasenhuttl has a history of tweaking things in a superstitious manner.

During his time in Germany with Red Bull Leipzig, to end a losing streak, he ditched his tracksuit for a pair of jeans – and it paid off with a win.

He did something similar in the Champions League when he left his suit at home to try and turn his side’s fortunes around.

Hasenhuttl added: “Sometimes it can be a symbol of not being sure if you do everything right and you get a little bit superstitious. 

“The better way is to work as hard as you can and to get a good feeling that you did everything that is necessary to win a game, and then it’s not necessary to be that superstitious. Then you can trust more the facts.

“I could have also changed my training suit during the time we lost every game. But I stuck to it because I thought ‘No, that’s not the reason we are not successful, because I wore the wrong trousers, or I have no beard or something’. I didn’t think about that.

“This is also something that changed in those days in my mind. Sometimes I was like, ‘OK now I have to wear something else’ and then it’s going better.  No, it’s not that easy.

“Especially at that level, it’s not about coincidence. It’s about facts, what you do, what you invest and what you get for it.

“Even then, sure, you need a little bit of luck. But I think the luck you get is when you invest a lot and maybe we didn’t invest a lot in that time. Now, we do.”