SAINTS boss Ralph Hasenhuttl admits it is "hard to accept" his side did not come away with three points against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Saints looked on course for their fourth Premier League win of the campaign, with the other three having all previously finished 1-0.

But they saw their slender advantage scuppered deep into second-half stoppage time, Neal Maupay popping up to equalise and earn a 1-1 draw for the visitors.

"It’s horrible, the feeling I think tomorrow morning will be even harder," Hasenhuttl told the Daily Echo.

"We are not the first team that has conceded a goal from them in the overtime, but we know that it was absolutely not necessary.

"You cannot be happy about what you have done in the 95 minutes before when you concede such a goal.

"When you are one up it is always a possibility to get the equaliser, as long as you don’t score the second goal then there is always a chance to come back and this is what happened today.

"This is the reason why we are very, very disappointed today."

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He added: "This is absolutely a situation where we had a fantastic game played, maybe the first 35-40 minutes.

"Dominated nearly the whole game. We lose (two points) at the end and we feel we are not the winner today.

"This is awful. This is definitely hard to accept."

Brighton played all 10 minutes of stoppage time with just 10 men due to an injury forcing off Leandro Trossard after the Seagulls had made all their substitutions.

But they still battled back for a point.

Asked how disappointed he was with the way his side approached the final 10 minutes, Hasenhuttl referenced an injury to goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who played on despite a hamstring complaint.

Hasenhuttl said: "This is the issue when you have no goalkeeper you can play the ball back to.

"They give pressure, even with one man down. It is not so easy to play out then.

"We had a few good moments where we were coming in the opposite half, but we have to keep the ball in there.

"We had two big ball loses in the overtime. One from Moi (Elyounoussi) and one from Prowsey (James Ward-Prowse).

"And then, like always, I think it is not the first time they turn a game around in overtime and they did it again.

"We don’t want to discuss if we deserved to get the win today or not. We didn’t take it and this is hard for us to take."

He added: "The performance was much better than, in the end, the result. But this is football.

"Sometimes in the end it is not fair or when I say not fair, when you are so stupid in the end, then we don’t deserve the three points in the end.

"But the performance, I cannot say that it wasn’t okay, it was absolutely okay.

"We have to learn from such moments. We were discussing this also in the half-time that it is never over until the last whistle is blown, especially against Brighton because we know that they have this momentum in this season, all the time at the end.

"This is the third time they have got an equaliser in the overtime.

"As long as you are one up, the chances are always there and they believe in these chances. They did it.

"We had a big chance to beat them for the first time here at home and we didn’t do it. This is hard to take."