MARIEANNE Spacey-Cale insisted that Southampton FC Women must make sure they "bounce back" after Sunday's 2-0 Championship defeat to Charlton Athletic.

The result means that Saints drop down to fourth in the table but Spacey-Cale was left disappointed with the nature of the goals conceded at St Mary's.

A Kayla Rendell own goal just after half time and a late Melissa Johnson strike meant that the hosts missed the chance to go to the top of the table.

It was the fourth defeat in the Championship this season which incidentally is the same number of losses that champions Bristol City suffered last campaign.

Speaking to the Daily Echo after the game, the Saints boss admitted that the club need to work hard on the training pitch and reflect on the previous matches, in order to get back to winning ways.

Daily Echo:

She said: "Today, something didn’t feel right and something didn’t feel like the players that we know and how they can play. We have to make sure that we bounce back from that.

"We work hard on the training pitch throughout the week and the most important thing is getting everyone back in together and watching the game back.

READ MORE: Southampton FC Women miss chance to go top in 2-0 loss to Charlton

"Looking at the clips and saying ‘Where can we do better?’ We have to be better moving forward than we were today."

With the competitive nature of the division, any dropped point means will invite one of Southampton's promotion rivals to take advantage of their slip-up.

Spacey-Cale continued: "I am disappointed that we gifted goals. We can’t do that, not in this league.

"We have to be mentally stronger and we talk about this league being challenging in every game that you play but disappointment is probably the overarching emotion at the moment.

"The league is how it is. Everybody is fighting for that one position but we have to make sure that we go back to basics to give ourselves the best chance to remain in the position that we are in and push forward from there."

Saints will face another of their fellow promotion contenders next Sunday when they make the trip to take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.