Southampton fans didn’t get the traditional Boxing Day game this year as our Premier League clash against West Ham United was shifted to Thursday evening for the television cameras.
Welcoming Manuel Pellegrini’s team to St Mary’s Stadium, manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was looking to build on back to back victories and make it three wins on the spin to grow that gap to the relegation places now our form has turned slightly.
Despite opening the scoring on the day with Nathan Redmond finding the net once again, the visitors quickly levelled and had a 2-1 advantage just ahead of the hour mark as Felipe Anderson helped himself to a brace.
Not our night… ???? #saintsfc pic.twitter.com/4s2Oa1F2u4
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) December 27, 2018
We did have chances to level the scores ourselves, but we couldn’t find another way past goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and we ultimately fell to another defeat.
No doubt, Hasenhuttl will be looking at the positives as it’s still early in his tenure and things will be up and down as he seeks further improvement.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, the Austrian said of the game.
“The way we lost it was too easy, we didn’t play such a good game. If you give it away like we did then you don’t deserve to win. We were not so fresh and not so speedy, or sharp to win the second balls. We ran a lot without the ball, at half-time we changed a few things put early pressure on and scored the first goal. Their goals were too easy, one from outside the box and one from a corner we had.”
