It was many unhappy returns for Mauricio Pochettino as he suffered the birthday blues at the weekend.
The Saints boss turned 41 on Saturday but rather than celebrating was left frustrated as his side lost to bottom of the table QPR 2-1 at St Mary’s.
Harry Redknapp, who turned 66 on the same day, was the one with a reason to smile as his first return to Saints since managing the club provided QPR with only their third league win of the campaign.
Pochettino said: “We basically made two mistakes that led to conceding two goals.
“We put in an effort big enough to manage a better result but they had three chances and scored twice and we weren’t able to score more than them.
“Perhaps we didn’t create enough chances but we did have more chances than they did.”
The Saints boss, speaking through his translator, is still confident his team will avoid relegation this season but admits he needs to see some improvements.
“I have faith in my team, confidence in my team and we will work hard to get better results,” he said.
“We are just focussing that we need to get more points and improve certain aspects of the team.
“We are fully focused on that and that’s what is going to lead us to get better results.
“It’s hard to analyse taking into account the negative result we’ve had.
“We were lacking a bit of movement in the creation department and perhaps we were a bit static.”
Pochettino also defended his pressing tactics where he has been pushing forward the full backs which has left Saints somewhat exposed at the back at times.
“The thing is the full backs were where they had to be,” he insisted.
“They had to be on the defensive line and that’s where they were.
“I don’t agree with that thought because when we conceded those two goals at Newcastle and here they were in position. They were just mistakes we made.”
Saints also saw both Adam Lallana and Danny Fox withdrawn through injury.
“Lallana suffered a knock on his head he was quite groggy and that’s why he had to go off first half,” explained Pochettino.
“Fox had a knock on his quadriceps and he will be looked at over the next couple of days.”
