Martin hurt by result but proud of Saints' spirit

The Blues took an early lead when Axel Disasi headed home a corner, but Saints instantly responded through Joe Aribo and continued to threaten, only to shoot themselves in the foot as Noni Madueke intercepted a stray pass and set up Christopher Nkunku to restore Chelsea’s advantage.

Madueke then scored himself before Jack Stephens was shown a straight red card in the latter stages of the first half, leaving Saints with a virtually impossible task. Still they kept playing their way, and had a big chance to pull a goal back before Chelsea ruthlessly added further goals through Cole Palmer and Jadon Sancho.

“I’m obviously very disappointed and hurt at the result,” Martin reflected. “But I’m really proud of the players and really grateful to them for the way they play in the first half-hour – an incredible amount of opportunities in their box, incredible courage to take the ball, play with purpose and aggression and run forward.

“We had some brilliant moments – we should score more goals, we had three or four big chances in that period.

“We concede two really poor goals – a set play and a mistake, so that’s the frustration in that period, but it was game on. Even at 3-1 I felt we had a big chance, and we hurt them a lot with the ball and they hurt us at times as well because of the players and talent they have.

“We have to put into perspective we’re playing against one of the best teams in the country at the moment with some real attacking talent, but then of course we go down to 10 men for over an hour. Against a team like that, it’s difficult.

“It’s a really difficult and long night, but the players stuck at it, they worked so hard, took the ball under big pressure, had some big moments ourselves in the second half we should score, so I’m proud of them for that. They did not give up.”

Martin was forced into three of the four changes to his starting line-up due to suspensions to key trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes and Tyler Dibling. That meant a Premier League debut for centre-back Nathan Wood, who was later joined by another from the bench in Ronnie Edwards.

“We concede two late goals – a lot of tired legs, people who haven’t played for a long while,” Martin added. “Some big performances: Lummers’ (Joe Lumley’s) reaction to a mistake was fantastic, Woody on his Premier League debut I thought was outstanding, Breezy (James Bree) the same, Ryan Manning and Kyle [Walker-Peters] either side, the way they took the ball and got us out of pressure, and defended a lot, and Mateus [Fernandes] and Joe [Aribo] in front of them, really outstanding.

“As long as they keep giving us that, they are giving everything in some big moments, and then we have five big players ready to come back very soon who were sitting behind us and couldn’t play, but have been important for us.

“It was hard before the game, with the injuries and suspensions, and it was made even harder with 10 men, but I’m really proud of the players and what they gave us.”