Martin: We lacked courage in the first half
Russell Martin rued an off-colour first-half performance that saw Southampton fall to a first home defeat in five months, as Hull City ran out 2-1 winners at St Mary’s.
The visitors struck twice before the interval, leaving Saints in the same position they found themselves in last time out at St Mary’s against Huddersfield.
But on this occasion Martin’s side were unable to conjure a comeback, as half-time substitute Joe Aribo’s 88th-minute reply came too little, too late to affect the outcome.
“We were not all-in in the first half in any form of the game, really,” the manager said.
“The only time we were was when we had a brilliant chance with Joe Rothwell to go 1-0 up – really aggressive with the press, but we don’t score, which is frustrating.
“After their goal – a really poor goal, we worked on that move in training yesterday, we’ve seen Hull do it, it’s really rubbish – we didn’t respond anywhere near well enough.
“The biggest mistake we made tonight was we lacked courage in the first half to properly play football, and then it looks messy.
“It looks disjointed when not everyone wants to take the ball at any moment, it puts so much pressure on Gavin, so I understand the tension in the crowd and some of the moans at that point, but it’s not his fault. It’s a lack of willingness to really take the ball.
“The second half is so different because Ché Adams takes the ball, Joe Aribo takes the ball, I thought Will Smallbone and the two centre-halfs were so brave all night, even in the first half, helped way more in the second half by Ryan (Manning) and Kyle (Walker-Peters).
“When we didn’t have enough courage to really play football, we then didn’t have enough threat in the top line. When they (Hull) got in trouble, their wingers run relentlessly in behind, tried to stretch the game, we just didn’t have enough of that tonight.
“When you are a little bit off it like that and you’re playing against a good team that came here really aggressive – they were all-in on their plan, they were braver than us in the first half and it’s cost us.
“We were good in the second half, but no one will care about that because you’re 2-0 down and it’s the result that matters, but we just couldn’t get the goal back early enough to really have an impact on the game.
“But I liked a lot of what I saw in the second half, which tells me we’re going to be more than fine. We’ll take a lot of learning from the first half, but I’m annoyed and I’m frustrated, because the team lacked intensity against Bristol City last week, and tonight we lacked courage.”
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