On Tuesday night, Leicester City defeated Southampton 5-0 at the King Power Stadium to end Southampton's hopes of achieving automatic promotion to the Premier League this season.
The Saints had enjoyed a resurgence in recent weeks but defeat to Cardiff on Saturday left their automatic promotion hopes hanging by a threat heading into the clash at the King Power Stadium. Things then went from bad to worse on Tuesday night when they suffered a 5-0 hammering at the hands of table toppers, Leicester.
The result means that Southampton will now need to come through the playoffs if they are to play Premier League football next season and manager, Russell Martin, has sent Southampton fans a message ahead of what will be a nervy playoff campaign. Martin said:
“I want to apologise to the fans. We’re going to need them in the next few games to pick the lads up. We can still go and achieve something special. We can look back on this night at Leicester as something that was really important for us.”
Are Southampton fans still behind Martin?
It's been a turbulent first season in charge for Russell Martin at Southampton. After taking over in the summer, the club didn't have a great start to the season which led to some fans calling for him to go before Christmas.
However, Martin managed to turn things around in the new year with Southampton becoming one of the most in-form teams in the Championship. However, after coming up short in their pursuit of automatic promotion, many fans are beginning to question the ex-Swansea boss.
One Southampton fan posted on social media last night: “Russell Martin said we were good for the first hour yesterday. I like his positivity. But, I thought that was the first time it tipped over into delusion.”
Another said: “I really don’t think that Russel Martin is the man to take Southampton forward. He’s too one dimensional and even if we go up, I can’t see this style of play working in the premier league.”
A third added: “Russell Martin, one trick pony or a donkey?