GOALSCORER Andreas Jakobsson admitted it was down to the players to ease the air of discontent swirling around St Mary's.

The crowd voiced their disappointment several times during Saturday's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace with chairman Rupert Lowe and head coach Steve Wigley both coming under fire.

But Jakobsson stressed that it was down to the players to turn around the poor start to the season.

"We are very much behind Steve Wigley," he said.

"He is a very good trainer, we have good training, good practice, everything.

"He's very, very good, but it's up to us players to do it on the field.

"We need the points to climb up the table and we have not got them, so it was a bit quiet in the dressing room after the game.

"Every player is disappointed that we did not get the win. We need two wins to climb up to a good position. It's going to be a long season because we need these points to climb."

In a game the players had described as a "must-win" fixture, Saints were twice forced to come from behind to salvage a point, with Jakobsson eventually equalising in the 76th minute.

"It was a good equaliser. It was a good delivery from Graeme to Crouch and I couldn't miss it," he said.

"It was good to get back to 2-2 but then perhaps we should have kept the focus and perhaps win it because we had lots of chances.

"We were playing at home and although we respect Crystal Palace, these are games we should take three points from.

"We need to keep our focus and we have to concentrate more at both ends. They scored two goals but at the start of the second half we weren't really in the game.

"We were a little bit asleep in the first ten minutes after the break and only after they got their goal did we wake up and play quite well."

Jakobsson said he was not surprised to hear the crowd's disappointment, but stressed the players had to remain focussed on picking up points.

He added: "We have to focus on playing. The crowd are paying a lot of money and of course they are disappointed that we didn't win - that is normal.

"We have to perform a bit better and then I am sure the crowd will be with us. That is football.

"Maybe we didn't get that little bit of luck that we need because their second goal took a deflection and went in.

"When we have these chances they end up outside the goal.

"But we had chances as well and we need to do better to make sure this does not become a difficult season for us."

Jakobbson was partnering Darren Kenton in the centre of defence as Claus Lundekvam was absent with a virus.