Mauricio Pellegrino admitted his frustration that Saints couldn’t turn their total dominance into an opening day victory against Swansea.

Saints hit the bar and spurned countless good chances as a goalless draw heralded a club record six league matches in a row without scoring at home – some 545 minutes in total taking into account the barren run at the back end of last season.

Pellegrino did get Saints playing in a more positive manner, but the issues with goalscoring clearly have yet to be resolved.

He said: “This is football, it is something that we have to keep going and we have to improve, but parallel we play a game that we thought we had to play.

“We controlled the game, we controlled the opponent, especially in the second half.

“We never concede any counter attack and I think we did a good performance but in football it is effectiveness and you have to put the ball inside (the net) and we couldn’t and we have to keep going.”

For Pellegrino, the challenge remains just how to find goals in the team.

Daily Echo:

“As a manager you can work in the way how to create chances, how to play in what areas in the corridor in front of the defenders and behind them,” he reflected.

“The game, the association, between our full back and winger and striker, the connection between them, but it is really difficult to work. You can do finishing every single day for example, but it doesn’t have much in the game.”

One major positive for Pellegrino was the support the team were given by the Saints fans.

Towards the end of last season they were frustrated with the lack of goals, but Pellegrino enjoyed a warm welcome and a lot of patience for his team whose efforts were rewarded with warm applause as they left the pitch.

Pellegrino knows that won’t last forever, and is hoping to find some goals, and a win, when Saints host West Ham at St Mary’s next weekend.

“We are a little bit disappointed because we couldn’t win, but the fans were behind the team throughout the 90 minutes,” he said.

Daily Echo:

“They felt that the team wanted to win the game all the time.

“We are responsible to give them the best feeling, or show them that we want to win the game, we want to give everything 100 per cent on the pitch.

“It was a pity today but we have another chance next weekend and hopefully we can score and win the game.”