ON A DAY of limited positivity for Saints, manager Nathan Jones commended the performances of his side’s two deadline day additions, Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulamana.

Arriving from Genk and Rennes respectively in the final hours of Tuesday’s transfer deadline day, it was unclear as late as Friday as to whether Onuachu and Sulemana would be eligible to make the squad for Saints’ trip to Brentford.

But when Jones’s side turned up at the Gtech Community Stadium, the two attackers were with the rest of the Saints group checking out their surroundings.

READ MORE: 'Convinced he'll turn them around' Brentford boss launches defence of Saints manager Nathan Jones

Both Onuachu and Sulemana began on the bench but with his side trailing 2-0 at the break, Jones opted to throw his new attackers into the deep end.

Replacing Ibrahima Diallo and Moi Elyounoussi, the double-switch failed to affect the scoreline as Mathias Jensen added a third for the hosts late on to condemn Saints to a thoroughly disappointing 3-0 defeat.

But the duo still managed to show flashes of what they could bring to St Mary’s in the second half of the season as Saints attempt to stave off relegation.

Daily Echo:

“They made a difference,” Jones said to the Southampton official website of his two debutants. “They gave us an impetus and we looked better, put more balls in the box and were a better team.

“Late on, they only put one ball in the box, people go to sleep, don’t follow a runner, don’t compete and get a free header from six, seven yards. We didn’t have any free headers from six seven yards. 

“You have to defend your box better. It happened before I came, they didn’t defend the box well, and we’ve tried to improve that but it didn’t show today.”

And asked by the Daily Echo if he now feels he has what he needs to keep Saints in the Premier League and play the style he wants, Jones answered: “We have more firepower now, we have more now that can play front-footed. 

“Now it’s just work, I haven’t and I didn’t as we had two centre-halves away during the window when we were building for the whole duration of that, so it was difficult early on.

“We didn’t quite have the aggression and the firepower and the strength to be able to do that because it’s a young side but now we are better, now we have more so I'm fully focused on what we need to do.”

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