Sellés concedes Saints were second best
Manager Rubén Sellés was left disappointed by his side’s performance as Southampton slumped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of south coast rivals Bournemouth at a wet St Mary’s on Thursday night.
As the rain poured, spirits were only lifted in the away end as Marcus Tavernier’s strike five minutes into the second half proved to be the match-winning moment.
On his comeback from injury, Ché Adams thought he had equalised in the 88th minute, only for a VAR review to determine the striker was offside by the finest of margins.
Leaving Saints six points from safety, Sellés offered an honest assessment following an underwhelming performance.
“Very disappointed,” he began. “We came here with the intention to make a good game, to keep the pace up and then make a good performance and the first five to 10 minutes we did it, we tried to play forward, we tried to apply the pressure forward, but after those five to 10 minutes we were not able to control.
"We needed to change shape and even in the second half until we conceded the goal we were not in the game. In some other games during the season we needed to come back, we needed to fight back and I think we did, but again those margins went against us today.”
Losing Romain Perraud to injury in the first half and captain James Ward-Prowse, who was struggling with illness, at the break, Sellés concluded it wasn’t Saints’ night as they now prepare to take on Newcastle on Sunday.
“The situation with Ché and this offside, but it is offside. We had a couple of those moments in the last months.
“It’s the Romain Perraud injury, it’s needing to substitute James Ward-Prowse at half time, so all of those things were going on tonight and none of those things were in our favour.
“We prepare the games trying to win the games and that’s what we are going to do when we play Newcastle on Sunday and we need to start to get points right now. We needed to start some weeks ago and right now this situation is starting to get a little bit more points difference with the teams in front of us, but we need to be focusing on what we can do and try to do the very best when we go and play against Newcastle."
