Gordon Strachan reckons the memory of recent home performances against Middlesbrough "spooked" Saints on Saturday.

Saints began last season with a goalless draw against Middlesbrough at St Mary's and six months earlier Anders Svensson gave Strachan's men the lead before Noel Whelan equalised in a 1-1 draw.

Strachan said: "Our previous results against Middlesbrough spooked us a bit.

"We don't seem to score many goals against Middelsbrough, we didn't score against them here last year and when the goal went in that played on our minds."

It was the second time in four days that Saints had gone behind at St Mary's but the first time they had conceded the first goal in a Premiership home game since the 2-2 draw against Aston Villa in March, when they came back from being 2-0 down at half time.

In fact, Malcolm Christie was the first visiting player to score in a league game at St Mary's since Nick Barmby last April.

Strachan added: "Before the game we felt that the team that scored first would not get beat and that's the way it turned out.

"Last season we did not lose at home until we played Liverpool and Manchester United in the New Year but we're not Real Madrid, we're going to lose home games sometimes.

"It's getting harder here, people are coming with respect and making it diffcult for us.

"Liverpool had the best performance of their season here last year.

"Teams really respect what we're trying to do, we just need to do a bit better and have a bit more imagination in the final third.

"Whatever we tried in the final third wasn't good enough against Middlesbrough.

"That's down to individuals and I've spoken to the players about that.

"We got plenty of crosses in but Mark Schwarzer dealt with them all comfortably.

"What counts is the quality of the ball that comes in.

"That wasn't good enough today and we' re frustrted with ourselves because we got into some nice positions but panicked a bit.

"When we did have chances we snatched at them."

How Saints could have done with a repeat of the James Beattie doubles that gave Saints a 2-2 draw at the Riverside in January and a 3-1 win away to the same opponents two years ago.

"James Beattie only got a good look at one of the crosses and got barged by their guy," added Strachan, who refused to blame Saturday's performance on a European hangover.

He pointed out that Boro had needed extra time to beat second division Brighton, also courtesy of a Malcolm Christie goal, on the night his team drew with Steaua Bucharest.