RALPH Hasenhuttl explained the decision to wait until the final 15 minutes before making any substitutions at The Hawthorns, insisting: "There was no reason to change."

Saints produced an abject display in the west Midlands with relegation-threatened West Brom romping to a 3-0 victory.

The Baggies led 2-0 at half-time through goals from Matheus Pereira and Matt Phillips.

Saints did improve after the restart, but were caught by a third West Brom strike, courtesy of Callum Robinson with around 20 minutes to play.

Hasenhuttl named an unchanged XI from the one which came from behind to beat Burnley 3-2 last time out, and stuck with that team until the 76th minute at The Hawthorns, when Che Adams replaced Theo Walcott.

Nathan Tella and Moussa Djenepo were also introduced late on, with the latter winning a penalty, which was missed by James Ward-Prowse.

Asked why he delayed in making changes, Hasenhuttl explained: "At half-time I said I want to look for 10 minutes how we change the behaviour and how we change our way of playing football.

"And then we had maybe the best 25 minutes of the game. We had pressure on the opponent and we created chances. We kept them in their half.

"It was everything we wanted to do from the beginning, so there was no reason to change."

He continued: "Then you concede a third goal, what is in my opinion simply too easy. It was the only chance they had in this time of the second half. Then the game was gone.

"Then you can make changes, but then the game is gone so it doesn’t make a big difference then.

"You hope for this one action which gives you maybe one step back in the game. With the penalty we had this chance, but it was very late in the game so the game was gone."