IT probably took an end of season slump for one of the top Saints performers to realise just how integral he is to their success.

Mohammed Salisu, after a series of gaffes and nervous performances since being touted as a Manchester City and Newcastle United target, is back to his imperious best.

The 23-year-old defender’s own goal, now with a full season of Premier League under his belt, was the match that lit an early blaze of concern in defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

‘Here we go again.’ But it has not worked out that way and, despite defeat to Wolves on Saturday, Saints have seven points – all won from behind – from a tough opening six matches.

Salisu, enjoying a partnership with summer signing Armel Bella-Kotchap, is the new ‘fire-fighter’ in Ralph Hasenhuttl’s defence.

“We need to stay focussed, we are having a good start but we need to focus on the next game,” Salisu modestly tells the Daily Echo, rather than directly speak of his own individual performances.

“We are at home (versus Brentford this weekend) but it is a tough game as well, and then we need to recover.

“It is a little bit disappointing you know, we did a good game but didn’t come out with any points,” Salisu added, reflecting on the defeat to Wolves.

“It is a little bit frustrating, you know, for the team. We need to focus on the next game.”

Daniel Podence’s back-post conversion, in added-time of the first-half, was enough to separate the sides.

That, despite Che Adams having an open goal chance in which he handballed on scoring and hitting the crossbar in back-to-back efforts.

It was the third game in seven days for Saints, who had taken Manchester United all the way in defeat last weekend and come from behind to beat Chelsea on Tuesday.

A number of their players – not least Romain Perraud who could barely walk by the time he was substituted after 73 minutes – looked dead on their feet from the encounters.

“No, I think we were good, as you can see we had a good game,” Salisu insisted, asked if the team were tired coming into the match.

“I think we are a little bit unlucky with the disallowed goal and then the crossbar from Che. I think we are unlucky.

“We deserved something. We deserve some points here because the team really worked.”

Wolves carved Saints open with just four passes in 12 seconds to score their goal ahead of half-time. For the final ball, Kyle Walker-Peters was nowhere to be seen at the back-post.

He prepared to dart forward before Moi Elyounoussi conceded possession under the pressure of two defenders, which Hasenhuttl called out in his post-match press conference.

Salisu reflected: “The rest defence is the most important and when you don’t organise the rest defence the opponent will punish you.

“And then we need to speed up the game. We need to be in our positions so that the rest of the players can cover, but we sped up the game and that is the why we conceded the goal.”

The result saw an otherwise positive week end on a disappointing note, following a deadline day that saw four new signings in at Staplewood Campus.

Samuel Edozie and Ainsley Maitland-Niles both made their Saints debuts at Molineux, while Juan Larios was left on the bench and Duje Caleta-Car should be available as of next week.

“Yeah, I think they are good lads,” Salisu said, asked on how they have settled into the group.

“We had a session with them and they were really working hard, as you can see today.

“I am very happy with the signings, they are really working hard and they are some good players as well.”

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