Martin admits his 'anger' at dropped points against Middlesbrough

Emmanuel Latte Lath’s 90th-minute equaliser saved a 1-1 draw for the visitors to puncture Championship automatic promotion ambitions.

Adam Armstrong had seemingly fired Saints towards a 23rd victory of the season with his 30th goal contribution in the Championship this season – more than any other player.

But Ivorian Latte Lath nodded in his 10th goal of the campaign late on to extend Boro’s unbeaten run to five matches.

Saints had ended their 20-day break since their last game with a goal inside 12 minutes.

"They were annoyed," Martin told the Daily Echo, when asked about the reaction of the group at full-time.

Waiting for Russell Martin, but a few of the talking points for me from that game up now.

Interested to hear Martin's take. Many of the same messages again, I expect - and he'll be right.#SaintsFC https://t.co/U701hNwLAq

— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) March 29, 2024

"I was so angry straight after the game so I had to take some time to talk to them. I am really disappointed, we had some massive chances but that is football sometimes.

"If you are not going to be clinical at that end, you need to defend your end properly. We didn’t do that.

"I am really pleased with a lot of the performance, the only bit I am not pleased with is the 15 minutes before halftime," Martin continued.

"We run out of energy a little bit and I think if that doesn’t happen, we go into the break very differently but instead they think there is a chance.

"I don’t know what that’s down to, maybe it’s not having a game for three weeks and a lot of players going away.

"We created a lot of chances and on another day we win by a few goals but we didn’t and it hurts.

"The opportunity was there when you see the result at Leicester, but I do think there will be twists and turns."

He added: "There will be some crazy results because the end of the season does some strange things to teams and people feel pressure.

"We need to make sure we bounce back and nobody needs to build up that game on Monday." 

Adams, who has 10 goals this season, missed two big chances in the two minutes after his goal was ruled out for offside.

Martin does not lay the blame at the door of the Scotland international, who is out of contract at the end of the season. 

The boss insisted: "He will be frustrated he didn’t score but it happens, we are human beings.

"He was not the reason we don’t win, we should still defend properly. Adam Armstrong had two chances fall to him which he was really frustrated with.

"We will be looking for the players to build on that and add a little bit I think we can help with, what a brilliant way to take our frustration out with a big game on Monday."