MANAGER Ralph Hasenhuttl stressed Saints must be able to “come over the line” without star frontman Danny Ings.

The England international was forced off through injury after 57 minutes at Tottenham, having headed in the opener to put his side 1-0 up.

Three minutes after Ings’s exit, Gareth Bale put Spurs level before a cool Son Heung-Min penalty condemned Saints to another top-flight reverse.

Asked about the correlation between striker Ings’s departure and his side’s collapse, Hasenhuttl said: “We still have subs that can come in, do a good job and they are fresh.

“I didn’t have the feeling that our subs helped us also.

“Ingsy is a good player, yes, but we must be able to come over the line without him.”

Hasenhuttl made five changes to his starting XI at Spurs, following Saints’ 1-0 loss to Leicester in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday.

“It was important that we did it because you see how intense this game was,” the manager said, when asked about the alterations.

“We had a game on Sunday evening, so definitely for us it was a short time to recover.

“Hopefully for us, Danny Ings is not injured. For him it is always difficult to play two games in three or four days. This is the reason why I made a lot of changes.

“The guys who were fresh on the pitch did a good job.”

Hasenhuttl confirmed Ryan Bertrand was left out of his squad due to injury.