Southampton manager Mark Hughes believes his side need to be more ruthless in front of goal but was pleased by what he saw in his side’s 2-2 draw with Brighton on Monday night, the Daily Echo reports.
The Saint let a two goal lead slip at St Mary’s on Monday night, with Hughes’ side having already dropped five points from winning positions this season.
The Saints have struggled to maintain leads in recent seasons but Hughes is adamant that he has a good side at his hands.
Hughes spoke of Monday night’s draw:
Disappointing but we just pick ourselves up and go again.
We take positives from a lot of the good play we produced but it’s that ability to see the game out we need to add to our game and once we do that I think everybody can see we are quite an accomplished side at this level but we need to get maximum points when we have the opportunity.
This was a big opportunity to get into the top ten and get back-to-back wins that we’ve found difficulty with so it’s a missed opportunity really if we are honest.
Hughes was asked whether he believes his squad could improve their mental resilience and whether he believes the mental side to the game is where his side are falling short.
Maybe. I have mentioned before that I sensed that but I don’t think that was the case this time because we had a real go and our general play was more on the front foot and we are playing with more confidence and that’s clear for everybody to see.
You have periods in games where momentum goes against you and you just have to ride out those moments and hope that you don’t concede or are damaged by the shift in momentum the opposition are able to create.
At the end of the day you have got to give them credit. They had nothing to lose, they were 2-0 down and thought ‘sod it’, let’s throw people forward, have a go and take risks and that’s what happens on occasion and they got a positive result so credit to them.
From our point of view it’s disappointing because it’s a game where we should have been home and hosed long before the winner when they got the penalty award.
