AN angry Anders Svensson was frank in his assessment of Saints' 2-1 defeat at Norwich on Saturday.

"We were too weak - this is a huge setback," he admitted.

After the high of last week's derby victory over Pompey, Steve Wigley's rollercoaster reign as head coach took another dip as Saints once again missed the chance to build much-needed momentum to their season.

A Damien Francis brace gave Norwich the victory after Saints had taken the lead from an excellent James Beattie volley. It was their first Premiership win in 14 matches this season and lifted the Canaries off the bottom and level on points with Saints.

"It is a game we should have won had we played as well as the previous week," said Svensson.

"We started quite poorly. We were too weak defensively and in the second balls - we didn't win enough 50-50s.

"They created too much. Def-ensively, we were very poor."

The Swedish midfielder was at a loss to explain the contrasting nature of recent displays, saying the players had felt on a high after the long-awaited win last week.

"We were confident going into this game," said Svensson. "But we didn't start well and didn't deserve to be in front. I think we should have won the game, but we were too weak.

"I thought we started the second half better and thought we would take over. To lose goals from set-pieces is disappointing. It's not good enough.

"We had a good, strong performance against Pompey and must go back to that. We were hoping to turn the corner and build on it."

The one big positive from a disappointing afternoon was the return to goalscoring form of Beattie after his toe injury.

"It was a good goal from James," added Svensson. "But there is not much consolation.

"We must just focus on the next game - we want three more points, but we won't get it with a performance like that.

"We must look at the game and see what we did wrong and change it next week.

"Crystal Palace is a big game and we need three points definitely."