NATHAN Jones was plunged further into a world of hurt after a distressing 1-0 defeat to Premier League strugglers Nottingham Forest leaves them rooted to bottom place.
Taiwo Awoniyi scored the only goal of the game after Lyanco passed straight to Brennan Johnson on the half-way line and sparked a Forest counterattack before the break.
The defeat was punctuated by fan frustration as chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and ironic jeers at Jones’s managerial decisions filtered through St Mary’s.
If it is not a battle of titans, what was it? Saints had won just six points this season at home, the fewest of the Premier League, while Nottingham Forest has scored one goal and conceded 22 away.
The result means Saints have now lost 10 and drawn two of their last 13 league matches, and suffered a sixth defeat in a row.
A relegation six-pointer is probably the answer – and Saints could ill-afford anything but a win with straight defeats since their last points at AFC Bournemouth in October.
Nathan Jones opted to give Che Adams some attacking support with Sekou Mara making only a third Premier League start, as one of three changes.
Important players in Romain Perraud and Romeo Lavia boosted the side with returns to the starting XI while Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Aribo were dropped, and Samuel Edozie rested.
The club looked to boost the atmosphere with an unprecedented light show involving light-up wristbands in the Kingsland Stand and a lot of pyro.
The heat seemed to transfer to the players who started well but Adams, the one who needed to be cool as he was played one-on-one in the area, fired wide from another sitter.
Brennan Johnson did something similar up the other end but his right-footed effort smashed off the crossbar to let Saints off.
James Ward-Prowse struck over from a dangerous free-kick and Morgan Gibbs-White fired wide at the other end, before things got worse for Saints.
Johnson did not let them off again after Lyanco passed straight into his path on the halfway line, running through and squaring for Awoniyi to net the opener and a first away goal since August.
Then, after half-an-hour, Armel Bella-Kotchap was forced off with injury – having tried to hobble up the touchline and shake it off for a moment – with Duje Caleta-Car on in his place.
The referee’s whistle for the interval brought the loudest boos heard at St Mary’s yet – perhaps even eclipsing the end of the Ralph Hasenhuttl era – but Jones opted for no further changes.
The football did not change, and if it did, it got worse. Saints survived so many blunders that Forest fans began chanting ‘sacked in the morning’ to Jones in his fourth league game as boss.
By the way it resonated, it could have even continued its way around the ground. It was the backing track to a desperate Ward-Prowse providing good deliveries but nobody meeting them.
Saints toiled into the evening but never looked like breaking through, even as Steve Cooper’s side recorded a rare result of their own and leave the home side staring down relegation.
Saints: Bazunu; Walker-Peters, Bella-Kotchap (Caleta-Car, 33), Lyanco (S Armstrong, 85), Salisu, Perraud (Edozie, 64); Lavia (Aribo, 64), Ward-Prowse, Elyounoussi; Mara (A Armstrong, 64) Adams.
Unused subs: Maitland-Niles, Diallo, Djenepo, Caballero (g/k).
Booked: Perraud, S Armstrong.
Forest: Henderson; Aurier, Worrall, Mangala (Colback, 59), Boly, Lodi (Toffolo, 84); Freuler, Yates; Gibbs-White (Scarpa, 71), Johnson (Williams, 84), Awoniyi (Surridge, 71).
Unused subs: Cook, Dennis, McKenna, Hennessey (g/k)
Booked: Freuler, Johnson.
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