Saints fans hoped it would be a turning point for the team after the disastrous reigns of both Ivan Juric and Russell Martin this season, unfortunately an Aston Villa side intent on once again qualifying for the Champions League made it largely one way traffic.

Simon Rusk made only a couple of changes from the side that lost at Tottenham Hotspur, restoring Paul Onuachu and Jack Stephens to the starting line up with Joe Aribo & Tyler Dibling out.

But not a lot changes from the game against Spurs, although in fairness to Rusk he was facing a far better side than Juric had come up against in his final match.

The fact of the matter is that this team is now shell shocked, low on confidence and leadership.

But it did battle hard and it took Villa 73 minutes to break us down completely and score, however when they did the floodgates opened.

All three goals could have been avoided, the opener from Ollie Watkins perhaps highlighted the difference in class, Watkins had come off the bench 7 minutes earlier, contrast that with the fact that just before that change, we had taken off Cameron Archer and brought on Ross Stewart, the difference in class between the two squads at this point could not have been more obvious.

Indeed that was perhaps the main reason for this defeat, all three Villa goals were scored by players who came off the bench, they had game changers, sadly perhaps Tyler Dibling aside we had no one who could come off the bench and improve the side.

Perhaps this game was all about the players who were not even on the bench for one reason or another, we lack strikers, so why did we let two go out on loan in January and not replace them, once again Sulemana failed to shine, plenty of running, plenty of promise, very rarely any end product, Sam Edozie contributed more in the Championship and he is out on loan, why was Adam Lallana not named on the bench, we could use his experience, what has happened to Albert Gronbaek, Charlie Taylor & Ryan Fraser, all three have barely played since signing this season.

The fresh legs that came on were on just for that reason, fresh legs, as I say all three goals could have been avoided, but tiredness in the legs breeds tiredness in the brain and this contributed to all three goals conceded.

The first saw a through ball catch out both Jan Bednarek & Taylor Harwood- Bellis with neither knowing who was going to deal with it, Aaron Ramsdale who had been the hero shortly before with his penalty save, got caught in no mans land for this one to compound things.

The second found the scorer given acres of space to slot home and the third was another clumsy challenge that was mis timed and not needed to be made.

But we have to put this game behind us and move forward, we know this squad is not Premier League class

The one ray of hope in this game was that Arsenal aside in the last game of the season, Aston Villa are probably the best side we will face for the rest of the season.

The real problem with this game is that Simon Rusk changed little, he did the same things as Ivan Juric and he got the same results, as I said this is a shell shocked squad, something had to be changed, the same players made the same mistakes that we have been making all season, it was still deja vu.

But to be fair to Simon Rusk, he has a job on his hands that is not of his making, he has a task that is virtually impossible, turning round a squad that is disheartened, low on confidence and leadership and all over the place, to just stop it and turn it around with just a few days on the training field was a big ask.

However we now have a run of matches that we can get points out of, we have to concentrate on them, but it will need change, at least three players who started the game should not be on the pitch at the start of the game at West Ham, things have to be freshened up and not see those that constantly let us down once again & again.

All Photos Via Reuters