Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl feels his side were “closer to winning” after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leeds United at Elland Road. The hosts started on the front foot and took the lead through Jack Harrison in the 29th minute as a frantic first half ended with Jesse Marsch’s side on top.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “I think it was the expected game. We spoke before the game about how sometimes it would be ping-pong because of two teams who like to play quickly forward. We tried to avoid playing in our own half today because we knew that the pressing would be an intense one and we wouldn’t have a lot of time. We tried to play stuff that would hurt us normally because the behaviour from them is very similar to ours. I think it worked quite well. We had more chances today, we had the better ones and I think we were closer to winning this game. But in the end, we had to take the point, good step forward in such an intense atmosphere, intense game to go away with a point here is okay.”
Leeds came into the game on the back of two consecutive wins and with the crowd behind them, hit Saints hard in the first half.
Ralph Hasenhüttl said: “It’s normal at the beginning here when they’re coming out with all their energy. It’s tough to control the game, it’s tough to get the game to calm down. This is never easy here. In the second half, the energy from the opponents was not as high as in the beginning so it was easier to come out and concentrate on your game. I think we played a bit more, found our full-backs more, we could switch the game and take on the other side. We had a few good chances, Tino (Livremento) had a big one at the second post where he must score. This is a position where he must take his opportunity to score and in the end, you need a sensational free-kick from Prowsey to score but we had other chances also.”
