DESPAIRING Dusan Tadic admitted Saints feel ‘ashamed’ of themselves and need become ‘men’ after their horrifying 3-0 defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium.

Saints knew it was a huge game in their bid for survival in the Premier League, but they flopped completely as Marko Arnautovic’s brace and Joao Mario’s early opener buried Mark Hughes’ sorry side.

Tadic branded the Hammers nailing the lowest moment of his career and, with seven games remaining to save themselves from the drop, urged Saints to finally show some balls.

“It’s very hard to talk. We feel ashamed. We lost 3-0. It’s a very bad feeling and we have to take responsibility. It’s just our mistakes, all of the players. It’s not the mistake of somebody else, it’s just our mistake,” the 29-year-old, who was clearly devastated by the defeat, said.

“We need to be men, we need to take responsibility and to know what kind of situation we are in. We are in a tough situation.

“I’ve been here when we had the best results of all time for Southampton and personally I feel very ashamed and it’s a very tough moment.”

The Serbia international has never felt this low during his 12-year professional career.

“Never. I think this is one of the worst moments of my career and it’s a tough moment. But we have to show we are men. We need to fight but in this moment it’s tough to talk,” he said, soon after full-time at West Ham.

The London Stadium stuffing was Saints’ second successive 3-0 defeat in the Premier League and, again, they showed a shocking lack of fight and desire.

Mario fired in the first on 13 minutes before Arnautovic made it 2-0 just four minutes later, leaving Saints with a mountain climb with less than 20 minutes gone.

With Hughes taking charge of his first Premier League game at the helm, there was an expectation that Saints would throw the Hammers deeper into crisis following their tumultuous 3-0 defeat to Burnley three weeks’ ago.

But there was no sign of the sought-after ‘new manager bounce’ as West Ham put their woes behind them and thrust Saints back into a world of trouble.

“Every game you play you try to win but obviously something is wrong; by this I mean something with me and all the players,” Tadic added.

“Something is not good. It’s not the fault of the coach, it’s not the fault of the fans. It’s not the fault of anyone else, it’s just our fault.

“We should be ashamed that we are in this kind of situation.

“When you start the game and after 15 minutes you are 2-0 down it’s not possible to win the game.”

It’s high time, Tadic admits, Saints grew a pair.

“It’s tough. When the new coach came in we start to train better on the pitch but, still, when we come out onto the pitch on a Saturday we have to take responsibility,” he said.

"We need to be men and we need to show our balls. It’s simple, we need to be there.”