BOY, was Gordon Strachan hurting on Saturday evening.

For the series of post-match interviews with the television, radio and newspaper pack, his voice was flat and the body language tired.

It was as if he had taken an unexpected blow to the solar-plexus, stunned by the impact and sickened by the result.

"I am hurting, and that is what happens when you know you have had a bad performance, you hurt badly," he said. "At this moment in time I am hurting badly and I have to make sure this never happens again one way or another."

Strachan did not "slam" or "blast" his players in the dressing room afterwards. He reserved judgement for the following day when the squad reported back for a post-mortem.

He explained: "The result you can handle, it's the performance that you ask from the players and I didn't get it.

"It would be easy for me to rant and rave in the dressing room, so there wasn't any blasting or slamming in the dressing room. I have left them in the dressing room. And overnight and during Sunday I will ask myself as a manager how I can allow a performance like that to take place on a good surface in front of 32,000 people.

"I will take responsibility for that and I hope the players will look at themselves as well."

Southampton's players were booed off at the end of Saturday's game with chants of "What a load of rubbish"- and you don't need to be a member of Mensa to anticipate the thoughts of those who had forked out £8 for privilege of suffering the Sky game.

The one statistic which is the most damning of all as far as Saints fans are concerned is the zero next to the 'shots on target' column. Incidentally, their first corner did not arrive until second half injury time.

So what went wrong? How can a team which has been so competitive and robust in Strachan's 30 matches in charge, be so limp and lame? What will the video nasty show?

The Southampton manager reckoned that neither side played particularly well, but that is being a mite unfair on Everton.

David Moyes' team are not a pretty side to watch, but they had fire in their bellies and were prepared to compete far more, especially in the middle of the park. Win the midfield, and you win the game.

Everton had Thomas Gravesen and Scott Gemmill in the engine room, and they completely overwhelmed Rory Delap and a tired-looking Anders Svensson. Initially the tactic was to use the pace of Lee Carsley putting the ball over Wayne Bridge to get behind the Saints' defence.

Kevin Campbell dropped deep, occasionally pulling Claus Lundekvam with him and that left holes behind. And with David Unsworth completing the Everton midfield on the left-hand side, the blue tide was dominant either on the flanks or through the middle. They were physical without being dirty, and possessed a tremendous work ethic.

Paul Jones was one of the few Southampton players to emerge with credit, producing some important saves. He was sharply off his line after 12 minutes to deny the lively Nick Chadwick who snapped a left-foot shot straight at the goalkeeper, with Jason Dodd blocking Campbell's rebound.

He then tipped over the crossbar a powerful shot from substitute Tomasz Radzinski who played a neat one-two with Campbell after 53 minutes.

The Welsh stopper was alert at his near post when Watson beat two Southampton defenders on 78 minutes and, after initially being wrong-footed, Jones blocked his rasping shot.

Ten minutes later, it was Jones again reacting nimbly to Unsworth's curling free-kick 22 yards out.

Unfortunately, there was little he could do about Watson's goal five minutes from half-time.

Jo Tessem lost possession in midfield as he tried to evade a challenge from Alan Stubbs, Campbell nipped in, slipped the ball to the defender, whose left-foot finish any striker would have been proud of.

"I thought I was still playing up front," said Watson. "Kev (Campbell) played in a good ball, and I just had to scoop it over him (Jones)."

Strachan's frustration was clear to see on the touchline. He let fly at linesman Darren Drysdale over one decision, racing half-way down the touchline to confront him and had to be restrained by fourth official, Dermot Gallagher.

Later on he even had a quiet word with one of the ballboys closest to the dug-out, encouraging them to get the ball in quicker.

The Southampton manager threw on Brett Ormerod midway through the second half in an attempt to salvage the game. The lean marksman got behind the Everton defence after 75 minutes and his angled shot found the side-netting.

Referee Mark Halsey did little to endear himself to Saints fans, booking Marian Pahars for diving and a series of 50-50 decisions seemed to go against the hosts.

Saints had a good chance to nick a late point when Telfer won a free-kick on the edge of the Everton penalty area right on the stroke of full-time. But substitute Fabrice Fernandes, hoping to repeat his goal-scoring exploits last seen from a similar position against West Ham, just blazed over.

"We did not do enough to score goals, today was a bad, bad day," admitted Strachan. "One or two of my players had half-decent games, and I'm sure the 32,000 will know who the two was."