FRONTMAN Che Adams insisted it was “frustrating” to go through a goalless run at Saints after he saw another strike disallowed on Tuesday.

The Birmingham-born forward slotted the ball into the bottom corner with the score at 0-0 at Leeds, having run on to James Ward-Prowse’s quick free-kick.

But referee Andre Marriner deemed he had not blown his whistle and ordered for the set-piece to be retaken.

Saints went on to lose the contest 3-0, having capitulated in the second period.

Giving his view on the incident, Adams told the Daily Echo: “On the free-kick, the ref said he wasn’t ready for us to play. It’s a tough pill to swallow. We just have to keep going and carry on again.

“I think if you look at other games we’ve had, we’ve had quick free-kicks and we’ve been allowed to play but on Tuesday it didn’t happen, it’s obviously frustrating.

“It’s part and parcel of football, I guess.

“We had a few disallowed decisions that went against us in the end. I think we dominated the first half pretty well – we just didn’t get going in the second half.”

Adams saw a similar move chalked off during the 9-0 defeat at Manchester United earlier this month – VAR deeming him to be fractionally offside with referee Mike Dean overturning his decision.

It means he has gone since December – and 15 games - without scoring, his last goal coming in a 3-0 home victory over Sheffield United.

Asked how he would get through another run of games without a goal, Adams said: “Obviously it’s definitely frustrating but I think I have been through this before. Maybe been wrongly accused of disallowed goals but that’s part and parcel of football.

“I just want to try to help the team out as best I can.

“I think as a striker you are going to through these certain spells where you don’t score.

“Obviously it’s frustrating. You want to do the best you can for the team and help the team out.

“I think you have a process, you keep going and carry on.

“It’s just about getting one and the rest will follow but it’s just about picking up the best result for the team.”

Saints have now lost seven of their past eight league contests and are eight points clear of the bottom three in the top flight.

“We just have to keep going,” said Adams.

“It’s only down to the players on the pitch to do what we can do, to pick up results slowly. I think we will get there in the end.

“It’s Everton on Monday now, we’ve got a lot of time to recover and rest.”