Saints went to Leeds with high hopes of a first win in 8 games, but ultimately they were overrun late on by a Leeds United side who pour caution to the wind and attack in droves and defend with gusto.

There can be no real excuses for this defeat, no contentious VAR calls it was down to our own ability to stay in shape and deal with the Leeds United way of playing football and that is breaking from deep and hitting you hard and fast.

The shock of the day was the changes to the starting line up by Ralph Hasenhuttl, out went Danny Ings, Minamino & Djenepo and in came Adams, Armstrong & surprisingly Nathan Tella for his debut.

But defeat cannot be blamed on a weak side, the starting XI were the better side in the first half and could have and really should have taken the lead, but after Marcelo Bielsa tweaked his side the warning signs were there for Saints.

The real drama of the game came just before the break, firstly the lively Tella on his full debut went down in the area and Andre Marriner pointed to the spot, VAR of course looked at it and when the replays were shown there probably wasn't a Saints fan who would have given the penalty, I stop short at saying Tella dived, but he seemed to clip his own heels after touching his opponents leg.

So no one could argue about that incident, but there was a contentious decision, Saints won a free kick, but referee Marriner's mind seemed to be elsewhere as he ambled away from the position, Saints assuming that they could take the free kick and did so, finding Che Adams in space who fired home, but Marriner who had blown almost simultaneously as Saints took the free kick, blew again just as the ball reached Adams and insisted that the kick be re taken as he hadn't blown the whistle.

The ruling was a moot point, not every free kick needs the whistle to be blown and Marriner was making no effort to blow his, so it was a reasonable assumption that we could take it quickly, this didn't cost us the game, but it didn't help.

The half ended with Saints having had much the better of the play and the chances on what was a slippery pitch which in truth was dangerous with players slipping over all the time, often when they were no where near the ball.

Saints started well after the break and could have been a goal up in the first minute after the restart, however the shot was straight at the keeper and the ball was sent long to find Bamford on his own on the half way line, he still had a lot to do but despite the best efforts of Bednarek & Vestergaard he still did it and seconds after potentially going a goal up we were a goal down.

It was now end to end stuff and the game was in a pattern, Saints attacked and then Leeds counter attacked, for the next 30 minutes it could have gone either way, although it was Leeds who created the best chances and it was a combination of Alex McCarthy & poor finishing that meant as the last 10 minutes loomed it was still 1-0.

But it was Leeds who would get the second and decisive goal to put the game to bed, Bielsa had switched their fastest player Raphina from the right to the left to take on Bednarek at right back and we just couldn't deal with his pace, we should have done something to counter this, even switch Ryan Bertrand to right back or at least provided Bednarek with cover, he battled gamely, but it was a race he couldn't win.

As the game reached it's final stages Saints still kept going forward even after losing Romeu to an ankle injury sustained when the pitch gave way on him, but we were prone to the counter and Leeds had targeted our full backs.

Indeed on one counter attack, the home side looked certain to double their lead, but Oriol Romeu kept up the chase in what looked a lost cause and then made perhaps the best tackle I have seen in any game Saints or otherwise to stop a certain goal.

On 78 minutes we were caught on the break again and this time neither the keeper or Leeds themselves missing could stop a goal.

Six minutes later and a free kick saw Leeds get a 3-0 scoreline that both flattered them, and was a testament to their counter attacking game.

No excuses for this game, Nathan Tella aside, the starting XI and all three subs were experienced players, this was not a squad having to play teenagers, we should really have done better.

Certainly if Kyle Walker Peters had been in the side we would have coped better, but it was our own indiscipline that cost us this one, we played into Leeds hands, we tried to play them at their own game, we pushed people forward, but we didn't leave anyone covering the central defenders and we left them exposed for pace.

We can roll out all the stats to show we more than matched Leeds in every area, but truth is we let them draw us into playing the game on their terms and not ours.

In many respects this was the most disappointing game of the last 8 in the Premier League, we had virtually a full side to pick from and we failed,

Photo: Action Images

Peterx added 17:02 - Feb 24 One other point is that Messier pulled off a top quality save against Armstrong down to his right, if that had gone in the tone of the game could have changed. We probably still would have lost but you never know. Think we were 1 down at the time, I see it did not make any of our highlight reels. My view is we cannot play for 90 mins with the Ralph press. Earlier in the season we could pass it around effectively at the back to rest when we had KWP, now we don't have the personnel so because we can't rest we run out of gas. Last night passing it around the back would have been suicide on that pitch. So we should have parked the bus for periods and let them come at us and play them on the break and also long balls. Problem is without Walcott / Long/ Obafemi we have no pace up front for those balls. I don't believe Tella, Armstrong or Redmond has the pace of those 3. Danny and Che are another level down in pace. We never should have let Long out on loan with Walcott injured, if we have to park the bus he is a candidate to charge around and keep their defence honest with his pace, especially if we don't have Obafemi and Walcott. Which brings me to my two main points, 1) squad decision making is a problem. Walcott is injured and we loan out Long. We have one RB and we loan out Valery, who knows if Will Ferry is good enough at LB as backup to Berty but Vokins is out on loan. 2) RH loves playing people out of position, we saw it at times last year as well. My view if you have the backup play the backup and rather play everyone in their best position. Bednarek's best position is CB - right side - play him there. He is good at closing down the shots from outside the box precisely where two of the goals last night came from. If that means Salisu is on the bench and we have our guy who played Man U at RB, so be it.

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PezzaSaint added 18:14 - Feb 24 By and large I'm a Ralph fan. I enjoy his enthusiasm and the way he talks to the media. However, there is a theme to his managerial history with the Saints and that is the amount of points that we lose from winning positions. Recently it has been Leeds and Wolves where their managers have made changes that had a positive effect on their teams 2nd half performance. Ralph doesn't do that for the Saints. Last season our record was similar! Perhaps he needs to make subtle changes to our play that will counteract what he thinks the other team will do. Bolster midfield, hold the full backs from going forward, start playing the ball over the top into the channels? Both don't carry on doing what we were doing in the 1st half because the opponents will counteract that!!!

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allsaint54 added 19:35 - Feb 24 Really fear for the rest of the season, can't see where the next win is coming from. Great admirer of Ralph but I'd love to hear his half time talks as we're a different side in most 2nd halfs this season. No excuse for last night just plain poor. Redmond, wtf is he doing on the pitch, please lock him in the dressing room, my swear box overflows every time he plays. His attitude at being subbed was appalling, what did he expect. Only bright light was Tella who deserves a longer run in the team. Now it looks like Romeu will be out for a while. Up front there is no spark, both Ings & Adams need a break. So we can't score & averaging 3 goals/game against. Relegation form. Must stop as I'm getting took depressed

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NewburySaint added 20:53 - Feb 24 Same happened as I have posted before-when the going gets tough the majority of this squad lack backbone hence 2 9-0 defeats, the appalling performance at Newcastle against 10 & then 9 men and our bad habit of losing leads.....this lack of backbone reared it’s head again when we went behind and we probably all knew deep down it was over even though there was still virtually 1 half of fussball to be played.

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