Russell Martin described the mistakes which are costing Southampton dear this season as “madness” after his side slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.
The key moment came in the 24th minute when Diego Carlos’ long ball forward caused confusion between Nathan Wood and Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jhon Duran seized possession and lifted a calm finish over Joe Lumley.
Things could have got worse for the Saints late on but for two brilliant pieces of defending from Wood to deny Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins what looked certain goals, but Southampton still fell to a fourth defeat from their last five games.
Martin revealed his frustration at his team adding what he regarded was another poor goal to their growing catalogue.
“Another mistake and not a shot on target is madness really,” Martin said.
“For all the football we played in the first half and at the start of the second half, we just give teams a lead too many times with such poor goals.
“At some point when a team scores a really good goal and bit of individual quality you can maybe accept it, but the goals are just so poor.
“It’s madness. It’s just those fine lines that hurt us too many times and the goals we concede are just so poor. The effort was brilliant.
“I love Taylor (Harwood-Bellis) and I don’t want to criticise him, but what happened can’t happen, so you either smooth the game out and pass or defend and clear it and we do neither.”
Southampton failed to register a shot on target in the game and were limited to just four efforts, despite having more possession than their opponents.
Martin added: “We don’t have enough conviction or quality and decision-making in the final third at the moment.
“I don’t know what more I can give the players to make them believe or that extra spark.
“When you’re bottom of the league, there have been tough games recently, some quality opposition, tough results, it’s been interesting to say the least and difficult to deal with.”
Unai Emery hailed Duran, who scored on his first Premier League start of the campaign, his first goal in the league since September.
“Fantastic, he’s progressively helping us with everything, scoring goals, working,” he said.
“We are very demanding with him, how we want him to respond on the field and today he did the work.
“We are happy for him and adding one more player scoring goals and doing the work we need.
“He listens and we had to try to stop his impassioned moments sometimes, but that’s natural because he’s young, he wants everything quick and the process he has we are doing. Today he scored a goal, (but) what was most important was how he worked.”