KYLE Walker-Peters admitted he does not blame the fans for booing in a toxic St Mary’s atmosphere following his side’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest. It was an assessment Walker-Peters agreed with, as Lyanco gifted Brennan Johnson possession on the halfway line for the youngster to square for Taiwo Awoniyi’s first-half winner. The noise inside St Mary’s was deafening on the referee’s final whistle, despite many fans having already filtered out in added time, and well overpowered the travelling supporters celebrating their first away win of the campaign.
Kyle Walker Peters said: “To be honest, I don’t blame the fans for booing. I don’t think we deserve much more, of course it’s nice to have their support but they come to see us win and at the moment we aren’t doing that. We’re conceding sloppy goals and it’s part and parcel of football, so we have to stick together in the dressing room and focus on trying to get a win. It’s really disappointing, we keep making the same mistakes in terms of gifting the opposition goals and when you keep doing that, especially with the teams in and around you don’t give yourselves a chance.”
Many supporters have already decided they have seen enough of Jones and his management of the Saints squad, despite only arriving in November and overseeing four Premier League games. Despite dominating over 60 per cent of the ball versus Forest, Saints stuck to their long-ball tactics versus a defence with six-foot three-inch Joe Worrall and six-foot four-inch Willy Boly marshalling Che Adams. Walker-Peters, however, has spoken in defence of his new manager and hopes he can help them turn their fortunes around.
Kyle Walker said: “Any manager that took the job would have known it was going to be a tough task but he’s up for it and that’s why he has come here. He is trying to give everything he can to improve us so it’s up to us to stick to his plan and stick to what he wants us to do, and hopefully it improves. I believe in the squad. We have got a good squad and we have shown that a few times at the start of the season and last season so it’s about getting that winning feeling back and hopefully then we can go on a run of games. Mathematically it’s not impossible (to stay up), it’s about getting that first win and from there taking it game by game to get some confidence in the squad, and then we can go on a run. I don’t think we were terrible (versus Forest), we didn’t have a shot on target but we were in and around their box controlling the ball. The problem was gifting goals, the manager can’t stop that – that’s down to us on the pitch.”
