RALPH Hasenhuttl admits Saints blew an excellent opportunity to win away to a Spurs side that played for an hour with ten men.

When Danny Ings equalised within ten minutes of Serge Aurier’s sending off, it looked as though Saints would at least take a point and extend their unbeaten away run to five matches.

But four minutes later they conceded at the worst possible time, just before the interval after leaving themselves exposed in the pursuit of a second of their own.

Hasnhuttl said: “It’s very disappointing. 

“We cannot be happy because we will not have as big a chance to win here. 

“Being clinical is a step of development we have to take. 

“We weren’t cool enough not to finish the game and that’s something we have to work on.”

Nine minutes after Aurier’s early bath, Danny Ings’ opportunism put Saints level.

“The momentum was on our side after the equaliser but we must come in at half-time at 1-1 and then we can adapt our shape a little bit,” sighed Hasenhuttl. 

“I didn’t change immediately because we still needed to have a good defence and they still had good quality with [Heung-Min] Son, [Harry] Kane and [Christian] Eriksen. 

“And I was right. It was exactly what happened but the way we defended the second goal was simply not good enough.”

Wary of Spurs’ threat, Hasenhuttl persisted with a back three until the 79th minute. 

“For 25 minutes in the second half we created chances and we had a few big ones with Maya’s header, which I don’t think many other goalkeepers would have saved. That was a little unlucky.

“But in the last 20 minutes, when normally the opponent gets tired, we stopped being calm on the ball. 

“We gave the ball away too easily and the decisions got worse and worse. 

“My subs were not making the game better and in the last 15 minute it wasn’t enough to get something.”