Jones: We have to be better
Nathan Jones provided an honest assessment of Southampton’s performance in his first Premier League home game in charge, as Saints fell to a 3-1 defeat to Brighton at St Mary’s.
The visitors took a two-goal half-time lead, as Adam Lallana’s header squirmed through the grasp of Gavin Bazunu, before Romain Perraud deflected a low cross into his own net.
Despite an energised start to the second period from the hosts, Saints fell further behind to Solly March’s long-range rocket.
James Ward-Prowse pulled a goal back when he headed home the rebound after goalkeeper Robert Sánchez repelled his late penalty, but Saints were unable to force a grandstand finish.
“We were poor today. In terms of overall performance, we were poor,” Jones reflected.
“In the big moments in the game, we weren’t good enough. When we had chances, we didn’t take them. When we had to defend our box, we didn’t.
“Two goals are really, really poor, and they come out of nothing. They’re poor goals to give away, and we have to stop doing that.
“One, we’re not defending our box well enough, and two, we’re making errors that are costing us goals.
“We have to be better, because at the minute we’re not keeping clean sheets. Since I’ve been here we’ve scored in every game, but we haven’t kept a clean sheet, so we’ve always needed at least two to get something out of the game, and that’s not good enough.
“You have to take any positive you can, and we reacted after half time and had a few chances, but we can’t keep chasing games.
“We worked on a load of things this week, and they weren’t brave enough to do that. That’s going to take a little bit of time, we know that, because it’s not a confident side.”
