SHANE Long has no doubt Saints are a far better side than they showed against Everton – but he also credited the Toffees with an outstanding performance at St Mary’s.

Roberto Martinez’s side, led by the destructive presence of Romelu Lukaku in attack, were comfortable 3-0 winners on Saturday.

Belgium international Lukaku netted twice in a brilliant first-half display, before Ross Barkley wrapped up the game late on.

“It just didn’t really happen for any of us,” said Long.

“We didn’t really get going and, to be fair to Everton, they had a good game and once they got 2-0 in front we were always kind of chasing the game.

“It’s disappointing, you know, because we know we’re better than that and hopefully we have more to offer, but it’s just back to the drawing board and try and learn from it, plan during the week and we’ve got four games in two weeks coming up, so a lot of time to make some differences.”

Long added: “I thought we were in control of the game before they scored. We just needed something to drop for us and I think if we go 1-0 ahead it’s a totally different game, but once they got the two goals – they were two on the break as well, one from a throw-in and one from a corner – it’s disappointing and you’re always chasing the game.

“They can sit back in and hit us on the counter attack and they were very good at that, with big Rom and Kone and Barkley and that – a bit of pace going forward.

“It was always tough to get back into the game, but just one of them frustrating days where nothing seemed to go right for us.”

Long continued: “It’s just frustrating to lose 3-0 to Everton. It’s a side that we feel like we should be beating to keep up to how we did last year, but fair play to Everton, they had a good game plan, they put in a good performance and three good finishes.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board during the week and try and figure out what went wrong and where we can improve and we’ll try and put that into form next week.”

On manager Ronald Koeman’s reaction to the performance, Long said: “I think he was a bit happier with the second half, that we kind of controlled the game a bit more and tried to play more as a unit and were harder to break down and I think towards the end it was just a fact of chasing the game and trying to get that goal to try and get back into it, and they sucker punched us.

“It’s hard to look at the positives right now. Losing 3-0 at home is not nice, so we go back and try and improve during the week.”