SOUTHAMPTON’S relegation from the Premier League was confirmed as the ruling out of a Charly Alcaraz goal for offside paved the way for Fulham to win 2-0.

Carlos Vinicius scored the opener one minute after the Argentine midfielder’s strike was chalked off in the second half and returning Aleksandar Mitrović made sure of the result.

Saints were eight points adrift of safety coming into the contest with nine points left to play for and only a win could have kept them in the fight.

Relegation ends an 11-year stay in the Premier League which saw qualification for the Europa League and a League Cup final.

READ MORE: Live updates as Saints are relegated

READ MORE: Saints relegated from the Premier League after 11 years

Ruben Selles made two changes to his team that started in the 4-3 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Monday, with Armel Bella-Kotchap and Che Adams both ruled out through injury.

Lyanco and Paul Onuachu came in in their places, with £18million Nigerian international forward Onuachu starting his first Premier League match since Leeds United in February.

It was always going to be a strange atmosphere and an early volley of ‘you’re going down’ from Fulham fans was met with gallows humour – the home supporters responded with their own chorus of ‘we’re going down’.

You then had the meerkat-like tentative standing up and peers of supporters in the Itchen as news emerged that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was among the fans at St Mary’s that afternoon, sitting just behind directors Martin Semmens and Henrik Kraft.

Carlos Vinicius had a decent chance inside the area on the volley but his effort was well blocked by Lyanco -  before the Brazilian defender escaped punishment for a blatant handball.

Fulham’s Harry Wilson whipped in a free-kick and the ball seemed to travel along Lyanco’s body before making contact with his hand – after a VAR check, nothing was given.

Lyanco then cleared off the line from Willian as the one moment of action in a mundane half of football, which saw the deadlock remain unbroken on Thomas Bramall’s whistle.

Alcaraz thought he had opened the scoring with his fifth Premier League goal despite only joining in January but he was ruled offside after racing through and finishing.

From the restart, Fulham attacked and Lyanco looked to get across to a swinging ball to former Saint Harrison Reed but the sliding midfielder diverted the ball through the Brazilian.

It was a simple finish for Vinicius to power in, before Mitrovic – returning from an eight-match suspension for an incident at the FA Cup semi-final – put the final nail in the coffin.

Saints began speeding up their play with the urgency you would expect of a team about to be relegated – but not until four minutes of added time went up on the fourth official’s board.

Saints: McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Lyanco, Maitland-Niles (A Armstrong, 82); Lavia, Ward-Prowse, S Armstrong (Elyounoussi, 73), Walcott (Kamaldeen, 61); Alcaraz (Djenepo, 73), Onuachu (Mara, 61).

Unused subs: Caleta-Car, Bree, Aribo, Bazunu (g/k).

Booked: Lavia, A Armstrong.

Fulham: Leno; Tete, Adarabioyo, Diop, Robinson; Palhinha (Lukic, 76), Reed, Cairney (Decordova-Reid, 68); Willian (Solomon, 76), Wilson (Kebano, 76), Vinicius (Mitrovic, 65).

Unused subs: Duffy, Soares, Harris, Rodak (g/k).

Referee: Thomas Bramall.

VAR: Tony Harrington.