Southampton manager Selles says they will keep fighting relegation

Che Adams had a late leveller ruled out for offside but Marcus Tavernier’s deflected strike was enough for the Cherries to pick up a deserved three points.

It means the St Mary’s side remain six points adrift of safety with five games to play, including Newcastle United, Brighton and Liverpool.

Relegation now seems an almost certainty but Selles has insisted his team will not lie down and accept their fate in the run-in.

Speaking after the match, he said: “We just need to keep fighting and trying to perform every game and trying to give a win.

“We’ve shown that we can perform against any team, we just need to be more constant and more robust in the things that we do.

“When we play against Arsenal or Manchester United it was working but with the performance today, it was not working.”

Selles added: “There is a habit we need to create and consistency we didn’t find, especially after the last international break we lost Che and were not able to make the result against West Ham – everything went a little bit to the other side.

“Sometimes we are getting it but others we are not, today everything went against us – but that is not an excuse. We had the (Romain) Perraud injury, (James) Ward-Prowse illness and offside at the end. We know where we are but need to find consistency.”

Under Selles, Saints have been beaten by Leeds United, Brentford, West Ham United, Crystal Palace and now Bournemouth.

It has been a season-long problem that the side perform against the ‘bigger’ clubs – beating Chelsea twice and taking points from Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – but bottle the games that really matter.

Asked to explain this phenomenon, Selles told the Daily Echo: “Sometimes it is about the level of pressure on the matches, sometimes it is about the type of football the other team is playing and sometimes it is about ourselves not being on point.

“Those are the facts we are trying to change to be more competitive.”