11:44am Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Adam Leitch
ALAN Pardew has refused to write off Saints’ play-off chances – despite their 1-0 defeat to Swindon last night.
Saints’ hopes of reaching the top six took a massive dent as they lost their first league game at St Mary’s since November, with former Poole Town striker Charlie Austin bagging the only goal.
It was always a big ask for Saints to make the play-off spots, and is now massively unlikely.
But Pardew insisted there will be more days like Saturday’s win over Leeds for Saints fans to savour in the future.
He said: “Mathematically it’s still possible, so we just try and win the next game.
“We’ve had a really, really tough season in trying to build this team and get it together.
“It was a disappointing night after a great day on Saturday and there will be many more of those to come.”
After seeing his side stay 16 points off the top six – but now without their game in hand – he added: “There was a bit of fatigue in there.
“But there was also significant pressure to get the win and we were rash at times with our deliveries from the back.
“We’ve got some good players here and we know we’ve got a good team.
“We’ve got to make sure we finish well and try and win every game until the end of the season.”
Saints, who were looking to equal a 33-year-old record by claiming an eighth successive home league victory did have a few chances, but just could quite capitalise on them in the first half.
In the second period Danny Wilson’s side – awho came into the match in sixth place – took control of the game and were able to see out time after Austin had netted.
“Swindon had a good game plan to try and stop us and restrict us,” said Pardew.
“They defended deep and defended in numbers and you need a break when you get that and we didn’t really get one.
“We had a couple of close shaves first half, we had one just over the bar, one’s just hit the keeper rather than him save it but I was comfortable with how we were at that time.
“The game changed at the start of the second when we started a little bit sloppy, they had a good spell and we gifted them a goal really.
“From that moment on we got a bit anxious, our crossing was disappointing and we lacked a bit of quality at that time.
“That was unusual for us, so a really frustrating evening.
“Swindon came to do that and they got away with it in some ways but they also did a professional job as well, so the two combined got them the win.”
Pardew continued: “Your full backs need to be imaginative in those situations.
“At times we fell down in areas but we still had big chances.
“You can go at any level of football and get frustrated with teams that do that and you need a break and a bit of quality and unfortunately for us we didn’t get either.
“We looked a little bit jaded if I’m honest second half – the efforts of the Leeds game perhaps took their toll.
“But we would still have liked to have had a bit more quality on the pitch.
“It was a tough day for our fans because we got ourselves into a good position and now we’ve got to lift ourselves because that’s a blow to us as a group.”
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