BOSS Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted Saints showed a lack of urgency after falling behind against Brighton, stating: "I didn't like the way we responded to the second goal."

Saints suffered their 10th defeat in 12 Premier League matches, falling to a 2-1 loss at St Mary's.

The game was level at half-time thanks to goals from Lewis Dunk and Che Adams, before Leandro Trossard's strike 10 minutes into the second half.

That proved to be the winner with Saints unable to carve out many clear openings to equalise, despite introducing Nathan Redmond, Moussa Djenepo and Dan N'Lundulu off the bench.

Asked how worrying it was to see his team's perceived lack of desire during the second half, Hasenhuttl said: "Yes, this is something you have to think about to be honest because I didn’t like the way we responded to the second goal we conceded.

"There was no power, no energy in the team. Although we have rested a few players during the week, also from the bench there was not really an impact to see.

"We are getting worse when we make subs. This is something that is, for our game, not enough."

He added: "There was too less conviction and not enough energy and power to go for these balls and fight.

"Giving it away in an easy way, it’s never easy against a deep sitting opponent then to create chances. But I think we can do it much better than we did it."

Asked why he feels Saints are struggling during the closing stages of matches in recent weeks, Hasenhuttl said: "It’s a combination of maybe a lot of things that happen. The second goal is a mentality killer, but we have a few players coming from outside, they are fresh, they should normally give us a lift in that moment.

"But also the way we tried it then was far away from what we wanted to do. I think you could see that it was a little bit chaotic.

"There was no plan, no clear idea in what we are doing in the last 30 minutes. This is not possible."