SAINTS FC Women were dealt a huge blow to their Barclays Women's Championship promotion hopes as they were beaten 2-1 by Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Sunday afternoon.

Marieanne Spacey-Cale's side started slowly and found themselves 2-0 down after only 12 minutes through a Megan Hornby double.

Molly Pike did pull a goal back later in the first half but the visitors were not able to find the net again.

The result leaves Saints in fourth place in the Championship with only three games left to play and are now four points behind leaders Sunderland.

The result also means they have suffered eight defeats in the league this season which is twice the number of losses the top two sides - Sunderland and Crystal Palace - have suffered this season.

Alice Griffiths was the sole replacement in the Saints line-up for the trip to Blackburn, taking the place of top scorer Katie Wilkinson.

Southampton missed Wilkinson's edge in the final third on Women's Football Weekend and may now be out of the promotion hunt as a result.

To make matters worse, all of Southampton's promotion rivals - bar Charlton Athletic - won their games on Sunday.

Crystal Palace beat Watford 3-0 at home while Birmingham put two unanswered goals past Lewes to secure a 2-0 win.

Both of those sides sit between Saints and table-toppers Sunderland, who won 5-3 against Durham but possess a game in hand.

Speaking ahead of the game to Sky Sports, the Saints boss insisted how important it is to start turning defeats into draws.

She said: "We are a young side and sometimes you want to turn zero points to one point and that’s certainly something that we would look to develop and grow from.

"If we've learned anything, it's how to get a point from a position where sometimes you deserve the point, and we've just not quite cracked that yet."

Southampton welcome Lewes to St Mary's next Sunday before their final two games of the season against London City Lionesses and Charlton Athletic. 

Saints: Rendell; Collett (Lloyd-Smith, 76), Mott, Peake, Purfield; Kendall, Primus; Morris, Pharoah, Pike; Griffiths (Thompson, 82)

Unused Subs: Rafferty, Wynne, Haaland, Milne

Blackburn Rovers: Brooks, Murphy (Seed, 83), Coan, Toland, Richards, Williams (Walters, 66), Hornby (Thomas, 83), Taylor, Shepherd (Dahou, 77), Hutchings (Chandarana, 77), Robertson

Unused Subs: Doyle, Hillier-Knox, Salgado

Goals: Hornby 5’

Hornby 12’

Pike 38’