MAYA Yoshida insists Saints did not deserve to lose at Tottenham.

The Japanese defender has reservations over whether or not Spurs deserved a penalty, from which Dele Alli made it 2-0 in the 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane.

Christian Eriksen had given Mauricio Pochettino’s side the lead on 14 minutes before Alli hit home from the penalty mark after he was tripped by Steven Davis in the box on 33 minutes, with referee Andre Marriner pointing to the spot.

It culminated in a miserable first-half for Saints in which the in-form Manolo Gabbiadini hobbled out injured just before the second goal.

Claude Puel’s men came out fighting in the second-half, with James Ward-Prowse celebrating his recent England call-up with a goal on 52 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to take anything back from north London.

Saints boss Puel himself apportioned some blame on Marriner for the defeat and Yoshida concurred with his gaffer.

“We showed a good comeback in the second half,” Yoshida said. “But first half they played much better and we should have played like the second half but from the beginning.

“We keep conceding a lot, which we have to stop now. They’re a good team but second half we played well.

“Personally, I think we deserved more, but it was 2-1,” he shrugged.

“The first goal was individual ability from Eriksen and the second one ... I still have doubts about the penalty.

“Now we break for the internationals and we can come back and have many games in April, so we will be ready.

“Nobody will be injured and we will be fresh.”

Alli was adjudged to have been fouled by Davis in the box for the goal that ended up separating the two sides.

Yoshdia added: “I couldn’t see the situation, so I can’t say exactly but I feel it is unfair.”

Oriol Romeu believes that Saints should come away with their heads held high after being defeated by one of the Premier League’s best teams.

“They took the chances they had and we didn’t play well enough in the first-half,” the Spaniard said. “We did have a very good reaction in the second and we came back.

“We put ourselves back one goal down and displayed good football to comeback, but we couldn’t score again.

“They are a very good defensive team but we did our job and we have to be happy with our performance.”

He added: “We reacted well and we have to take that at as a positive.

“We didn’t play our best football and we didn’t want to have that feeling in the second-half, so we said to each-other at half-time that we needed to be braver.”