Southampton’s Russell Martin in honest ‘rubbish’ verdict on Hull loss
SAINTS manager Russell Martin labelled parts of his side’s performance “rubbish” as they were beaten 2-1 by Hull City.
Early goals from Anass Zaroury and Fabio Carvalho were enough for Liam Rosenior’s Tigers to take all three points.
Joe Aribo grabbed an 88th-minute consolation for Saints but manager Martin was left furious at the first-half horror show.
Saints ended an 11-game winning run at St Mary’s to drop to fourth and Martin said: “The first half was rubbish.
“The second half was very good but that doesn’t matter very much when you’re 2-0 down.
“No one cares if you play well in the second half when you aren’t good in the first half and are behind. Hull were good but we knew that from the first game.
Hull City celebrate their second goal through Fabio Carvalho (Image: Stuart Martin)
“We had a good chance with (Joe) Rothwell before they can get into the game, we don’t take it, and somehow that doesn’t spur us on to go more aggressive.
Their goal is something we worked on in training yesterday as we’ve seen them do it a lot, so to allow that to happen is absolute nonsense.
“Last week’s defeat (their first after 25 games unbeaten, against Bristol City) was down to a lack of aggression, this week it was a lack of courage.
“The two things you need is courage and aggression.”
Martin added: “Credit to Hull they were really aggressive but we have faced a lot of aggressive teams here and done a lot better.
“The second half looks very different because Joe Aribo had the courage to take the ball, Che Adams had the courage.
“There was a lot of moans at Gavin (Bazunu) when he did stuff with the ball but it’s not on him and he was outstanding when he actually had people to pass to.
“I really understand the frustration around the whole place but the crowd were amazing in the second half and really stuck with us.”
Saints are back in action when they host relegation-threatened Millwall at St Mary’s on Saturday.
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