After Rovers drowned on the South Coast, with Southampton emerging 4-0 victors, a frustrated Jon Dahl Tomasson reflected on a below-par afternoon for his young side.
“Today was a disappointing day and a tough afternoon for us. We always knew that it would be very difficult to come here and play against a Premier League squad who are unbeaten in around 13 games. I thought we were quite solid in the first-half and we didn’t give many opportunities away, maybe one at most, that signalled real danger. We had a couple of moments on transition that we should have done better with. We were not good on the ball, today and didn’t hit our normal level. We knew exactly where the space in their team would be and when we did exploit those spaces, we played through Southampton with ease.
“The timing of their first goal was tough to take, just before half-time. We were always in the game at 1-0, but after the second yellow card and the sending off, the game was effectively over against such a strong team. The lads continued to push and tried to get back into the game and we managed to fashion an opportunity through Harry (Leonard) where we probably could have scored, but his shot was saved. Despite that, we knew it would have been even harder against a Premier League team with ten men, even though 4-0 doesn’t look great. A 2-0 defeat would have been more respectable, but we conceded two late on. The game was almost over at 2-0 as the 90th minute approached and then we suddenly played another ten minutes at the end, which I thought was a bit unnecessary.
“It’s extremely disappointing to concede from a set-piece. That was not good. We needed to cope with that situation better, defensively. The timing of the goal was not perfect especially before half-time and as we all know, goals change games.
“I’m not sure what Callum (Brittain) was doing; I’m not in his head. He apologised to everyone in the dressing room after the game. The whole second-half was a tough ask, but still, if you keep it 2-0, it looks a bit more respectable.
“What I can say, is that I cannot complain about the work-ethic of the lads, whilst in a difficult situation against a very good team. They did their best.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to talk about referees or the decisions they made, today. We should have been much better on the ball in the first-half and in the second, the game was lost on one decision, which was the red card.”
