Still: We've got to stand up
Will Still was left with a sense of déjà vu after seeing his Southampton side take the lead at Blackburn only to be pegged back and leave another away game with nothing.
Saints suffered the same fate at Bristol City in midweek, where a 1-0 lead turned into defeat, and at Ewood Park it was Leo Scienza’s first goal for the club that sent the visitors on their way to what the travelling fans hoped would be a welcome victory.
Adam Armstrong had two big chances to double the lead against his former club, including striking the post, before Rovers rallied to score two goals in the final 15 minutes and take maximum points, much to Still’s frustration.
“Same stuff, different day. We go 1-0 up, we’ve got total control, we have big, big opportunities to go and kill the game up and go two or three goals up,” the manager reflected. “But we start making mistakes, concede two really poor goals and end up losing 2-1.
“The club has been in this tough situation for a very long time – it’s only our fault and we’ve got to get out of it. We’ve got to stand up, go again and do it again.”
Saints have been battling a bug in the camp this week, with Tom Fellows, Caspar Jander and Flynn Downes all missing out on a place in the matchday squad.
Still made the decision to substitute Scienza – starting his third game in a week – midway through the second half to save his legs, but Shea Charles pulled up with a hamstring injury soon after.
“Any goal is important, especially in the situation we’re in,” Still said of Scienza’s first Saints strike. “We know what qualities Leo has got, we knew he – like other players – probably couldn’t play 90 minutes.
“I think Shea Charles is a perfect example of that, so we had to make the decision to bring him (Scienza) off, but he’s done everything that we wanted him to do.
“It (the injury to Charles) doesn’t look great – he’s probably pulled his hamstring, so he’ll be out for a fair while, but numbers were limited and we had to make decisions.
“We didn’t want to play those players for 90 minutes for a third time, but we didn’t really have a big choice.
“It’s not an excuse. We’ve got a good side on the pitch, good players on the bench, and we should’ve killed the game when we had the opportunities to do that.”
