Adkins bemoans defensive lapses

Nigel Adkins has called on Southampton to ‘learn quicker’ and fix their defensive frailties after seeing another lead slip against Fulham.

Jose Fontas’ last-gasp header snatched a point for Southampton against Fulham, despite the team dominating for last periods, with Jos Hooiveld converting a John Arne Riise shot into his own net and Kieran Richardson putting the west London side ahead late on.

And Adkins has called on the newly promoted side to sharpen up defensively if they are to have any hope of staying in the top flight, after losing a league-high 11 points from winning positions already this season.

“I keep going on about learning but we need to learn quicker,” Adkins said. “We’ve got to keep the ball out the back of the net.

“Obviously I am delighted we’ve come back so late on after going behind, but disappointed to concede the goals we did.

“The first half was good. We passed the ball well at certain stages. We scored a good goal from a set-play and could have maybe scored some more so the first half was very pleasing.

“The second half Fulham have come out and had a bit more possession of the ball. It was too open for our liking. We weren’t compact enough in our pressing as a team and we conceded a couple of poor goals.

“We’d like to think we could’ve done better with them, but there was great character from the players to score at the very end.

“You’ve got to take your chances when they’re presented. We had several good opportunities throughout the course of the game.”