SAINTS defender Armel Bella-Kotchap admits the upcoming clash with Nottingham Forest is “huge” and called on himself and his teammates to “defend properly” to get points.

The 20-year-old German international made his first appearance for Nathan Jones since going away to the World Cup with his country, in a 2-1 defeat to Fulham.

The Cottagers scored both of their goals from corner kicks, including a late winner which followed Bella-Kotchap’s erroneous concession of the set-piece.

It leaves Saints rock-bottom of the Premier League going into the New Year, with 21 games still to play and a January transfer window to potentially bolster their ranks.

But their next test is a visit from 19th-placed Nottingham Forest, who could go four points clear of Jones’s charges with a game still in hand should they win at St Mary’s on Wednesday.

“When we play good as a team and always stick together we can win this game, it is a huge one for us and we have to invest a lot more, defend properly and get points from it,” Bellap-Kotchap said.

“It is disappointing to concede two goals from set-pieces and this cannot happen, the Premier League is tough and every team has the quality to bounce back. Unfortunately we didn’t get the points that we wanted and this is disappointing.

"I think we defended well for the whole game but we have to be more clinical and serious when we defend our box, this is frustrating that we have not got at least one point but we have to continue.”

Bella-Kotchap, in response to being asked if he believes Saints have the quality to survive, adds: “I believe in my squad, I am not with my head down and hopefully we will get this. I’m sure we can.”

Saints have lost all three matches under new boss Jones, including two this side of the World Cup break following the Boxing Day hammering by Brighton & Hove Albion.

Bella-Kotchap agrees with the manager’s suggestion that the Fulham performance, which also saw a last-minute penalty save from Gavin Bazunu, was much improved.

“I think we played better, the gameplan for the first-half was what we thought and we improved after the second-half as well," he said.

"We played front-footed and this is the way we can play, we showed that often but we have to get points. It was a good fighting spirit but now we have to get points, we have to defend properly and if we do we will get points.

“We look at it game for game and we do not have much time to think about it; the next game comes and we will give everything to win and see what happens.”

Jones is still looking to settle on his best XI and has experimented with a number of different formations and personnel, including 18 different starters in the three matches.

Bella-Kotchap is one of those moved around to facilitate the changes, with regular switching between a back four and a back five – but he insists he is happy with either.

“I don’t really mind when the coach says we’re playing a back three or back four, regardless of where I play I always try to give my best for the team and we have to be successful in the next couple of weeks,” the youngster said. 

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