Stuart Armstrong Southampton
STUART Armstrong admits Saints have “only got ourselves to blame” for giving themselves a mountain to climb at West Brom. The Baggies deservedly led 2-0 at half-time at The Hawthorns thanks to a Matheus Pereira penalty and Matt Phillips strike.
Stuart Armstrong said: “You’re right, we want to move on. The first half was very poor. The second half, the first part was a lot better. We got ourselves back into the game with possession and chances and all that was missing was a goal to really put the pressure back on. Then they went up the other end and one ball through the middle and that was that really and it was all about just trying to slowly get ourselves back into the game. From then on, it was very difficult, obviously.”
Quizzed on what he felt the poor start was down to,
Stuart Armstrong added: “They (West Brom) started very well and we started very poorly. I think that’s the simple version. We were quite slow. We gave them too much space and we’ve only got ourselves to blame for finding ourselves 2-0 down at the break.”
Saints battled back from 2-0 behind to beat Burnley in their previous fixture and Armstrong felt something similar could have been on the cards in the west Midlands.
Stuart Armstrong said: “When the second half began, I think we had a lot of possession and you felt if we did get a goal, all the pressure would have been on them to keep the lead. We couldn’t quite find it for our efforts and after the third goal it is very difficult to get anything from the game after that went in.”
