Harwood-Bellis: It hurts
Taylor Harwood-Bellis offered an honest assessment following Saints’ deflating 3-2 defeat at the hands of Leicester at St Mary’s.
The hosts produced a dominant opening 45 minutes and had a two-goal lead to show for it thanks to Cameron Archer’s second goal in as many matches and Joe Aribo’s first of the season.
However, Facundo Buonanotte created an edgy atmosphere within St Mary’s when he got a goal back just before the hour-mark, with further drama to come when Ryan Fraser was dismissed for a shirt pull that resulted in a red card and a penalty that Jamie Vardy duly dispatched.
Seemingly heading to a draw, Jordan Ayew drilled home a 98th-minute strike from a corner to complete the turnaround and leave Saints empty-handed.
Speaking honestly at full-time, Harwood-Bellis reflected on a bewildering afternoon.
“It hurts,” he began. “I think 15 minutes in the second half we were still good, still in control and then their lad comes on and causes problems and we don’t deal with it well enough and we get punished.
“We were defending well, I just don’t think it should get to that point, so I’m struggling to see a positive. I just don’t think it can get to us having 10 men and us having our backs against the wall, struggling to figure out how it can end up like that.
“Now we’ve got to roll our sleeves up, it will hurt for the next couple of games but we’ve got a big game coming up that’s going to be one of the hardest games of the season at City so we’ll prepare for that, roll our sleeves up and just got to keep going, games to play, points to play for and just got to keep going now.”
