RALPH Hasenhuttl said “the only frustrating thing” about Saints was the manner in which they conceded the second goal during the 2-1 loss to Liverpool.

Joel Matip rose highest to head home during the final St Mary’s match of the season in the second-half, following a Kop corner.

The ball was delivered for Armando Broja to comfortably clear, but Moi Elyounoussi tried to nod it away first and ended up delivering backwards into the path of the giant defender.

It saw Liverpool complete a comeback started by former Saints loanee Takumi Minamino, who levelled after Nathan Redmond’s early opener.

And despite only registering four shots during the whole contest, seeing St Mary’s significantly emptier by the time the players did their lap of appreciation, Hasenhuttl insists it was only the goal that was frustrating.

“Second half again, sometimes tried to surprise them with the 4-2-2-2, sometimes pressing higher,” Hasenhuttl said of his tactics.

“You can immediately see if you don’t do it perfect they play through the lines and then you try to keep the game open as long as possible and then you concede a very easy second goal where you can clear the ball at the first post.

“This is the only really frustrating thing - conceding a goal like this. And then still try to balance the risk that you take because you know you’re still in the game as long as you’re only one goal down and the moment will come.”

He continued: “Especially in the last minutes, the moment will come to score the goal. We had games against them where after 50/60 minutes out of the game, today we had a longer time to try and come back.

“We had some good moments in the second half, one very tight one where it was nearly an own goal. And it’s the case that we’re also struggling with injuries at the moment, we had no full-back on the left side today because Romain is out for five-six weeks with a fracture on his leg.

“Tino is out for long. We changed to a back five and I must say, Redmond did a good job there. Active, up front he was okay, beautiful goal and another good chance from outside the box.”

The boss added: “In the end, it is how it is. We know that we try to get better and we have a lot of things to do in the summer to get better.

“We had a better run this season especially in the home games - the last ones haven’t been that successful so we keep on going.”

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