WESLEY Hoedt has called on Saints to maintain their concentration until the final whistle ahead of Chelsea’s visit to St Mary’s.

The Saints defender knows he and his teammates need to ensure they are focused “for 95 minutes” after conceding crucial injury-time goals in their last two home games.

When Glenn Murray’s penalty earned Brighton a 2-2 draw on September 17, three weeks after Harry Maguire’s winner for Leicester City, it was the first time Saints had lost points in the 90th minute of back-to-back home matches for more than 36 years.

Not since the end of the 1981/82 season, when last-minute goals from Kevin Keegan and Mark Hateley secured a 3-2 win for Liverpool and a 5-5 draw for Coventry City at The Dell – have Saints been guilty of losing points so late on in successive home games.

It has happened in three of Saints’ last four St Mary’s matches, going back to last May, when Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus scored with one of the last kicks of the 2017/18 season in a 1-0 win for the champions.

A month earlier, Saints lost 3-2 at home to Chelsea, having led 2-0 midway through the second half.

Even the morale-boosting Carabao Cup win against Everton on Tuesday night followed a late equaliser from Theo Walcott.

Hoedt is well aware of the worrying trend.

“We need to be 95 minutes concentrated instead of 91 - that’s the things that’s killing us at the moment,” he said.

“The most important thing for a defender is to concentrate for 95 minutes or 100 minutes even.

“If you see how we’ve been dominating games, we are better [than last season].

“A lot of critics were moaning that we didn’t play good enough but now we are playing attractive football.

“But there is still some kind of fear when we are up and winning that it might go wrong and it goes wrong.

“That’s up to us. You can’t say we’re unlucky because it happens too many times.

“It’s concentration, it’s mentality. Don’t switch off when we’re up because often that’s what happens.

“We need to be honest about it, it’s just too much.

“We completely dominated Brighton and Leicester City at home so that’s the thing we need to improve.

“We need to make everything a little better so we don’t keep clean sheets for 75-80 minutes but for 95 minutes.

“Everyone needs to look in their own mirror and if we do that we’ll be a better team.”

Hoedt was in the Saints team that lost 3-2 to Chelsea, having led 2-0 before three goals in eight minutes - an Olivier Giroud brace either side of an Eden Hazard goal - earned the Blues the points.

Chelsea return to St Mary’s tonight unbeaten in all 11 matches they have played this season under new manager Maurizio Sarri,with Hazard in outstanding form.

“Chelsea had pretty much the same players when we had the same problem and lost 3-2,” continued Hoedt, who played against Sarri’s Napoli for Lazio in Serie A.

“They have an amazing manager, his Napoli team was amazing.

“He makes his teams really strong. They play very good football and it’s up to us to match that.

“Of course it’s going to be a difficult game but there’s no reason why we can’t take a point. We need points on the board as quickly as possible.

“Where we are right now is not where Southampton needs or deserves to be.”