MANAGER Will Still is worried his players are unable to recognise key moments and insisted Preston's hard work beat Southampton's talent in a 2-0 defeat at St Mary's.
Saints suffered a third successive Championship loss, despite finishing the game with more forwards on the pitch than defenders, as Preston secured the win with a late goal.
Paul Heckingbottom's side scored their first, through Lewis Dobbin, soon after a succession of errors from Southampton prompted vocal frustration from supporters.
That anger grew stronger following the final whistle, as the players and coaches felt the ire of supporters as they now sit one place above the relegation zone.
Still said: "I think on pitch, you've got to read the situation, read the game. Does every goal kick need to go short? Does every pass need to go sideways or backwards?
"Or do you decide, in a manly way, to get the ball out of the pitch and take the pressure away from that? Go and win a second ball, counter-press, do it differently?
"We haven't done that. We've played short, we've played short again, played into pressure, lost it. And they've come straight back at us."
He added: "I'm not worried they're not listening. I'm worried that they can't recognise situations where we can play or we can't play.
"Again, playing up and direct is easy when you've got a profile like Ross Stewart, and we haven't got that. We've got quite small players.
"We need to find a different way of getting the ball up there. It's more about recognising when we can and can't, and we haven't done that.
"I don't think we need to look any further than our four walls. I think we have got bags and bags of talent in that dressing room, but hard work has beaten talent today.
"And hard work has beaten talent so far this season. We haven't done enough to get in front in games or then secure three points when we've got them in our hands.
"Today, again, we've not done enough to keep the ball out of our net, and not done enough to get the ball into their net.
"There's no point looking for excuses or looking for 'oh, this isn't fair, and it's not very nice'. Just grow a pair and get on with it, and we haven't done that."
