TOWERING defender Duje Caleta-Car has admitted that ‘maybe’ Saints play better away from St Mary’s after they suffered their fourth-straight league defeat at home.

Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa means that Saints have now gone 146 days since they last won a Premier League game at home - August’s 2-1 victory against Chelsea. 

It seemed that horrific streak might be coming to an end when James Ward-Prowse fired Saints in front just past the hour-mark but the goal was ruled out after a lengthy VAR consultation before Ollie Watkins headed in the visitors’ winner with 12 minutes left to play.

Three of Saints’ four league wins this season have come away from home and asked about the worrying trend after their latest St Mary’s defeat, Caleta-Car attempted to offer an explanation.

“I don’t know, maybe you can say we play better away than at home,” the Croatian said. 

“I don’t know why that is. Maybe we have more pressure at home than when we play away, maybe that’s the reason. But no, I don’t know exactly. 

“Now we have a good opportunity in the cup, we’ve shown that we play the cup games well so we know it’s a tough opponent coming and we will try to fix this in the cup games that are coming.”

The League Cup has offered Caleta-Car and his teammates some home respite with Saints earning progress to the semi-final stage after three consecutive victories at St Mary’s, including the memorable 2-0 win against Manchester City in the last round.

And Saints are back in action at St Mary’s on Tuesday night when they host Newcastle United in the first leg of their semi-final clash.

“We need to now forget this and turn around for Newcastle,” Caleta-Car added, looking ahead to the huge occasion. 

“We know we have two semi-final games and each is one step closer to the final. And everyone wants to be in the final and play final games and fight for the trophy. 

“So I hope it will be a better performance than it was today and we’ve shown in the cups that we are playing better so I hope against Newcastle, we’ll be better.”

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