George Burley is hoping to sign a new defender today to stop the errors he blames for back-to-back woes against Watford and Colchester.

In both the game at Vicarage Road on Sunday and against Colchester at St Mary's last night, Saints took the lead.

But they were forced to settle for just the one point out of six.

The Rudi Skacel own goal Saints conceded in last night's 1-1 stalemate owed more to misfortune than anything else.

But Burley was not happy with his backline and will be aiming to strengthen his defence today ahead of the visit of Barnsley on Saturday.

The Saints boss has been in talks with Cameroon defender Lucien Mettomo, but is now also in contact with a Premiership side for a player.

He said: "It was frustrating.

"We had to work hard and Colchester were always going to make it difficult.

"We had one or two opportunities in the first half and when we took the lead we should have won the game.

"Unfortunately, defensively we are still not strong enough.

"It's an area that's still a worry because we need to try and change the personnel.

"When you take the lead, like at Watford and again last night, you are looking for the three points.

"But unfortunately it didn't happen simply because of our defending, which has got to be better".

He added: "I've spoken to one Premiership club and we are hopeful we can bring somebody in for Saturday".

Burley refused to be drawn on who that was but several names have been linked, including Christian Dailly of West Ham.

Colchester's style was more defensive than expected, but Burley felt that was a mark of respect for his team.

"They've seen us and are going to make it difficult for us," he said.

"Teams will do that but we've got to be patient and work hard, which we did.

"We got our noses in front and it should have been the three points - that's the biggest disappointment from it".

Full story: See today's Daily Echo.