Former Saints stars Mark Dennis and Jim Steele described the club's Europa League exit as "dreadful" and "embarrassing".

Dennis, who played in the UEFA Cup for Saints during his four-year spell at The Dell in the mid-1980s, was expecting the club to qualify for the last 32.

Reflecting on the 1-1 draw against Hapoel Be'er Sheba, he said: "That was absolutely dreadful, the way they went out to get a 0-0 draw was poor.

"I was confident we'd go through so it just shows how much I know about football.

"I'm so disillusioned, Virgil Van Dijk was magnificent but I'm almost certain he'll go next month.

"The second ball was the major problem - we didn't win enough of them. At the end we had two great chances with headers that [Graziano] Pelle would have scored. With Charlie Austin injured we need a new striker badly.

"Steven Davis put in two fantastic deliveries, as did Cedric, that should have been put away or at least be hitting the target instead of going past the post.

"Saying all that, we didn't deserve the win.

"After being 0-0 for so long, you could see their goal coming and it was a great strike."

Dennis believes Saints have missed out on a big opportunity.

"We've let ourselves and the fans down," he said. "There was nervous atmosphere and sometimes that does affect the players, but Jose Fonte had to play.

"Going into the last 16 with the likes of Man Utd would have kept things burning.

"It would have been fantastic. We've shown we can beat anyone on our day so who knows how far we could have gone. Unfortunately we won't find out now.

"But I have to congratulate the club for the last year.

"I'm doing somersaults, at being halfway up the league and in the league cup semi-finals after the players we sold.

"The biggest plus for me was beating Everton and then seeing Ronald Koeman's face when asked about Josh Sims."

Former Saints centre-half Jim Steele, who played for the club in the 1976-77 European Cup Winners Cup after his FA Cup final heroics, was frustrated by Claude Puel's tinkering - and the absence of Jose Fonte.

"He changes the team too much, I don't understand why we don't play Fonte every time," said the Scotsman.

"It was embarrassing. Not playing Fonte was an unbelievable decision. If he plays with Van Dijk we win.

"Players need to play regularly together but he keeps switching it. You can't keep changing the team every week and expect to be consistent.

"It's six changes one week, five the next... players should be fit enough to play three times a week.

"We should never have sold Pelle and once we had done we should have got a replacement. We know Austin has a track record of being injured.

"If we lose on Sunday I think we're in big trouble."