SAINTS Women manager Marieanne Spacey-Cale was disappointed and frustrated after their 2-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers on Sunday.

A double from Megan Hornby inside 12 minutes gave Saints an early mountain to climb which ultimately cost them vital points in their bid to reach the Women's Super League.

Saints have slipped further behind in the promotion race. They sit four points off leaders Sunderland, while Crystal Palace (second) and Birmingham (third) have a game in hand.

“It’s a mixture of disappointment and frustration,” Spacey-Cale told club media. We can’t start the game the way we did, once you start like that it’s hard to claw back into it.

“But we did that at the end of the first half. We wanted to keep that momentum in the second half. For big parts of the game, we played some good football, but the start has really hurt us. 

“At 2-1, we thought we could get something. It wasn’t to be and that is disappointing.”

Sunday's defeat was Southampton's eighth loss of the season - twice the number that promotion winners Bristol City suffered last season.

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“You can’t underestimate any team in this league - that has been the exciting thing about this season," the boss continued.

“Every team can beat anybody on their day. That is shown every week. We have to have that mentality to be better every week. That is with the ball, without it and mentally.

“It is one of those days. They set up a game plan and performed it really well. We started to break them down a little bit but we need to do that more consistently throughout the whole game.

“The most important thing is that we learn from this and don’t do things the same in the next weeks. 

“We want to get back onto the coach and back onto the training pitch. The girls want to get back on the pitch and put things right next week.”

READ MORE: Which players will benefit most from Southampton's compact promotion run-in?

Saints are back in action at St Mary's on Sunday, March 31 against 11th-place Lewes, who are fighting against relegation.

Despite falling behind in the promotion race, Spacey-Cale is keen to ensure her players end the season positively and are ready to capitalise on any slip-ups above them.

She concluded: “We want to regroup in the week and have conversations about what we could have done better.

“We can sit in the dressing room licking our wounds and feeling sorry for ourselves, or we can showcase what we are about. The league is inconsistent.

"We know things will happen in the next few games. We have to make sure we don’t allow things around us to take their own lead and we fall behind everyone else.

“We need to give ourselves the best springboard to finish. Our last three games are all tough. We have to be ready.”