Boss Apologises For Newcastle Embarrassment

Mauricio Pellegrino has apologised to Southampton supporters for the sides showing against Newcastle United at the weekend.

Heading to St James’ Park for the game against Rafa Benitez’s side, Southampton were hammered three nil on the day with the hosts taking the lead inside of the opening 63 seconds to make a bad season marginally worse.

Speaking to saintsfc as he met with the media following the poor and frustrating defeat, the Argentine explained that the players simply hadn’t recovered from the early goal and we need to show far more mental strength given where we sit in the Premier League table.

‘We feel disappointed, because after the first goal the team was really down and we never came back from that situation. At this level, you have to be focused from the beginning and we paid the price for that.’

Pellegrino went on to say.

‘The team was really out of the game. In the second half, we tried with the changes, but after the third goal we never saw the possibility to be in the game. You can play bad, you can play in difficult moments or you can make mistakes, but you have to show your character and your spirit. The first thing is to react mentally. It is not about football terms because my players know what they have to do, but without the right spirit at this level we cannot compete.’

As for his apology to the fans, he did insist that hopes for attaining safety were ‘still alive’ even though we are now only a point from the dropzone – and Stoke have a game in hand on us until later this evening so it could all change by 9.45pm.

‘I would like to say sorry to our fans, because we couldn`t show the value of the club. We couldn`t represent our club at this level, but we have eight games to go and we are still alive. We are still in a position that we can change to save the season. We`ve got the FA Cup now and we`ve got three weeks to prepare for the next Premier League game.’

He added.

‘When you are in a difficult situation you have to be together, you need togetherness in the club. In football, it is like this. It`s really sad when you don`t get positive results and everybody looks worse than they are. This is part of our life, but we have to keep going.’