Nigel Pearson attempted to rally his players after their 1-0 defeat to Burnley left them facing a desperate battle to avoid relegation.

Saints now sit just one point and one place outside the Championship drop zone with games at table-topping West Brom and at home to in-form Sheffield United to come.

With Leicester playing Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, there is a chance Saints could be in the bottom three by the time they take the field at The Hawthorns a week today.

If that happens then they will be under huge pressure to get a result at the leaders.

Either way, it looks like being an exceptionally nervy last day of the season after Saints spurned the chance to virtually ensure survival against Burnley.

Pearson said: "I'm feeling very disappointed at this moment in time and frustrated as well. It's been a tough day.

"Going into the game I said all week we can't afford to be complacent and I don't think that was the case.

"We went into it with total commitment to try and win but it hasn't worked out for us.

"We've been done with a sucker punch before half time when they'd posed no threat to us. And when chances came our way we didn't take them.

"It puts us under increasing pressure. The next game is on the Monday and everybody else will have played, so we've got to be prepared to be in the bottom three again.

"We need to be mentally resilient enough to deal with that and put in two performances between now and the end of the season so we do enough to stay up."

For full story see today's Daily Echo.