Southampton captain Jack Stephens has now revealed what the dressing room was like following their last-gasp defeat to Ipswich Town.
Southampton saw their feint automatic promotion hopes crumble at the hands of Ipswich Town on Monday evening.
Russell Martin‘s men were excellent in the first half and went into half-time with a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Che Adams and Adam Armstrong.
Unfortunately, a common theme for the South Coasters this term has been a failure to take their chances with Ipswich punishing them deep into stoppage time.
After Nathan Broadhead equalised, James Bree was sent off before Jeremy Sarmiento scored a dramatic winner in the final minute of time added on.
The win propelled the Tractor Boys to the top and left Southampton trailing the top two by 12 points.
Despite boasting two games in hand, the Saints’ hopes of going up automatically are effectively over, barring a miracle, with captain Jack Stephens now revealing what the mood in the dressing room was like after full-time.
Jack Stephens explains how Southampton players felt after Ipswich loss
Southampton performed incredibly well for most of the match, so to lose in the last minute and watch their promotion hopes fade into the distance was a bitter pill to swallow.
As a result of this disappointment, the fans, players and managerial staff were understandably left heartbroken.
Stephens, who played out of position as an inverted left-back against the Tractor Boys, has explained how he and the rest of his teammates felt in the dressing room.
“The feeling is low. It’s a really tough one to take,” Stephens told the Daily Echo. “We had an amazing first half performance – it was a brilliant reaction to going a goal down.
“We scored two brilliant goals and then dominated from there and were ok in the second half until their equaliser – which was a really poor goal to concede.
“Again we had chances, there wasn’t much in the game between their second goal and their winner. It was a sucker punch.
“We felt really low at the end but it’s up to us to pick ourselves up and decide what we are going to do for the next eight games.”
Russell Martin’s decision to play Jack Stephens as a left-back was bizarre
Martin was criticised for dropping Kyle Walker-Peters and playing Bree at right-back.
The Saints boss said after the game that Walker-Peters didn’t perform well enough against Middlesbrough, and Bree deserved a chance.
This was a costly decision as the former Luton Town man was shown a red card in the 84th minute with Southampton forced to sit back instead of going hammer and tong for a winner.
Sadly, this wasn’t the only tactical error that Martin made having shoehorned Stephens into the side as an inverted left-back.
Many believe that playing Stephens during a pivotal period has cost them, while others have suggested that the 30-year-old has helped them recover from their difficult spell in February.
One thing is for certain, the Saints captain shouldn’t be used as a left-back, regardless of whether he moved into midfield to overload that area of the pitch.
Martin would have been better off keeping Walker-Peters on the right, moving Bree to the left and dropping Stephens to the bench.