'Faltered' - Southampton star on Leeds United test, 'lucky' top two view and big Saints hope

Southampton star Ryan Fraser has made a frank admission about his Saints side's shortcomings but with a last laugh hope ahead of Saturday's Leeds United finale.

Russell Martin's side went on a club record 15-game unbeaten run from September through to February to propel themselves into the automatic promotion picture but Southampton's top two hopes are now over.

Having seemingly recovered from three defeats in four games in February, Martin's side slipped to a third straight defeat at the weekend as Saturday's hosting of Stoke City ended in a 1-0 reverse.

The loss left Southampton destined for a fourth-placed finish and the team's Newcastle United loanee Fraser admits his side have not been good enough lately and were possibly "lucky" to have got themselves into the top two.

Fraser, though, says his Saints will now look for a "reset", eyeing maximum effort in training this week and ultimately the chance to have a joyous conclusion in the play-offs.

“It wasn’t good enough, but I think that’s come from the last, maybe four weeks, not being good enough,” said Fraser to southamptonfc.com

“We’ve faltered a bit when we’ve got into the end stage and it’s not a good feeling. I think that’s crept into our game and we’re trying to get it out of our game, but at the minute it’s not been great.

“It doesn’t feel good right now. I just feel there was a stage where we came back into second place, but we faltered as a team.

“We got a little bit lucky with the other results and we climbed up again, but then we faltered with results again, so we really need to learn from it because we don’t have a lot of time now.

“You never want to lose, but it’s best losing now. I know fans might think ‘we shouldn’t lose’ – I understand that, but we’d rather lose now than in three games’ time.

“We need to reset, we need to come together as a team and just give everything. "We’re giving everything, but it just seems to be some things are off at the minute – I don’t know if that’s pressure, I don’t know if it’s anxiety, I’m not too sure, but we need to reset and go from there, and give our all next week in training.”