Jan Poortvliet admitted his players displayed signs of having a mental block as they drew 1-1 with Sheffield Wednesday at St Mary’s.

The draw against the Owls meant Saints have had their worst home start to a league season since 1920 with just one win and five draws from their 11 games.

Once again, it was in the final third that Saints came unstuck against Wednesday.

Poortvliet concedes the home record is now looking like a mental barrier.

He said: “You know with the talk always about the home record and the home form things like that can happen.

“In their heads they think ‘we have to win, we have to win’ and they go back instead of playing forwards, instead of trying to make the second goal and that’s pressure.

“We can end that process and we should have ended it in the first half.

“The only way of changing it is making it 2-0 or 3-0 before half time and we could have done that and we should have done that – that’s the only regret.

“You need that to be full of confidence for the whole game.

“It has nothing to do with the physical or conditioning side of the team because that is very good – it is only in the their brains.”