THE VERDICT: The final word on Southampton's 2-0 defeat to Wolves

Mark Hughes said in the build-up to the match at Wolves that he could see progress in Saints’ play.

That’s fair enough, there has been, but in an industry that is dominated by results Saints cannot go on as they have been for the last 18 months at least, playing well, being in matches, coming away with positives but, generally, getting beaten.

It was that all too familiar tale at Molineux.

Saints could have won. It was a decent enough game between two fairly evenly matched sides, neither of whom were probably quite at their best.

But whatever it is that is making the difference between winning and losing cannot merely be written off as a blip when it has been something that has happened so consistently.

It’s not easy for Hughes.

Generally, when teams get into this kind of rut with what is surely more of a mental than physical issue, it is difficult for the manager to do much about it.

After all, this started long before Hughes took over.

The only course of action clubs can take is an overhaul of the playing squad, but that is far from easy and, once the summer transfer window has closed, unrealistic.

So where do Saints go from here? Not easy to answer.

Were this not such a long standing trend there is enough in their play to think stick with it and believe that things will come good.

And you can forgive Hughes thinking and saying that too as this is a situation he has inherited rather than one purely of his making.

But for those who have been closer for longer, it feels more than that.

To get to this situation, where it seems so inevitable that the closing stages of such a closely contested game will go this way, with chances spurned at one end and defensive errors punished at the other, is awful.

The hope was this would be a season without the constant feeling of struggle.

That can still happen, but things need to turn around quickly and these sorts of matches need to produce points rather than more frustration.