Martin explains why Archer took first penalty vs Man United

Archer, 22, took his maiden Premier League spot-kick with the scores level at 0-0 but saw his effort saved by Red Devils goalkeeper Andre Onana.

Man United went on to comfortably win 3-0 at St Mary's thanks to goals from Matthijs De Ligt, Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.

Penalty taker Adam Armstrong was left on the bench by Martin, while Ben Brereton Diaz - who has scored seven career spot-kicks - allowed Archer to take. 

Asked to explain the decision, Martin told the Daily Echo: "Well, Ben's quite a bit older than Cam (regarding his record). We've had a chat about it.

Cameron Archer headed the rebound into the grateful hands of the goalkeeper (Image: Stuart Martin)

"Cam has practiced a lot over the last two weeks during the intentional break whilst he's been here and Ben hasn't. He's done brilliantly with them.

"At some point, he's a number nine and he's going to want to take penalties - and he felt really confident to take one and Ben was happy for that as well.

"It is one of those things, if he scores, he's off and away. But he didn't, so of course, it's going to get questioned."

Martin, who addressed several topics in his post-match press conference, added: "It's on me and the decision we made and he's missed it. It's just the wrong one."

Impressive youngster Tyler Dibling won Saints the penalty in the 31st minute when he beat and was subsequently felled by defender Diogo Dalot.

Archer was delayed in taking the spot-kick while VAR checked if the contact was inside the box, which Martin suggested Archer could attribute to missing. 

Martin said: "VAR needed to look if it was inside or outside the box, but I looked at it once on the iPad and could tell it was inside the box.

"It is what it is. I think it's part of the game now. Maybe Cam would put it as a reason he misses or whatever, but it's happened and we have to move on."

Martin was asked if Archer would take the next penalty and responded: "I don't think Ben would be happy with that now because he maybe would want it. 

"I don't know. We'll have to wait and see if Cam's on the pitch. We'll talk about it. I actually think he played really well, Cam, so it's disappointing for him.

"Whenever anyone missed in the teams that I played in - unless it was Grant Holt or Wes Hoolahan because he bullied everyone and would take the next one.

"But every other team I played in, if you missed, it goes to the next one who wants it. If Adam Armstrong's on the pitch, he takes it. He's our penalty taker."