JIM SMITH was brutally honest when he assessed the defending that led to Pompey's opening blitz on Saints yesterday.

"The first goal was joke, the second goal was joke and the third goal was a joke," he said.

"We just made bad decisions and they didn't have to come at us. It was bad decisions that cost us.

"Antti Niemi is one of the best goalkeepers in the business but made some horrendous decisions and that cost us. If you are 3-1 down, wherever you are playing you have got a major problem."

A Yakubu penalty and Arjan De Zeeuw's header put Pompey two ahead, only for Henri Camara - a late replacement for the injured Peter Crouch - to put Saints back in the game with an excellent individual goal.

But Saints shot themselves in the foot to allow Lomana Lua Lua to pounce and immediately restore the two-goal advantage following a dreadful mix-up at the back.

"The killer goal really was the third goal after Henri had scored a great goal to make it 2-1," admitted Smith.

"It had given us a lift, but, within minutes, we made a horrendous mistake for 3-1. That was the period of time when you knew we were in trouble."

The Saints players and coaching staff remained in the dressing room until long after the match and Smith admitted there had been some frank discussions.

"Harry wasn't doing much talking in the dressing room," he said.

"We all had our say, but in the main it was the players doing the talking. It was just what they felt they had to do in the remaining few games."

Smith knows Saints may now need three consecutive wins to retain their Premiership status, but is taking heart from the fact that two of those matches are at St Mary's.

He added: "Obviously we can still stay in the Premiership. We have got three more games and two of them are against teams in a similar position. It's a tremendous task but if we win the three games we stay up. What we have to ensure is that we get the lads' morale up and pick the right team and formation to beat Norwich.

"The home results have kept us going so we have got to take heart that we have two home games."