No complaints for Neil after Southampton loss

Norwich City manager Alex Neil admitted his side deserved nothing from the game after witnessing them suffer a 3-0 Premier League defeat to Southampton.

Neil’s men went into the Sunday’s visit to St Mary’s Stadium having taken four points from their first three games.

But, after Steven Whittaker was sent off in the 31st minute for two yellow cards in quick succession, Norwich were comfortably beaten by Southampton courtesy of a Graziano Pelle strike and Dusan Tadic’s double.

Whittaker saw red for two bookings in the space of four minutes, receiving his first caution for blocking Matt Targett’s attempted quick throw in before being dismissed after impeding Tadic.

Asked about the second incident, Neil said: “It was tough to see it from where I was but I think he’s [Whittaker] tried to tug him back, which I think is a silly decision. 

“I don’t think he needed to, the ball was running through to [goalkeeper] John Ruddy. Steven made the wrong decision and got his sending off.

“I was bit disappointed with the first one, obviously it’s a throw in down the far side and the lad has tried to take it quick so Steven’s trying to recover his position and stop him taking a quick throw, which I think in some games nobody really bothers with and in other games it obviously picks up a booking.

“To be honest up until that point we hadn’t played well anyway, and over the course of the match we didn’t deserve to take anything from the game. I’ve got no complaints.

“Our use of the ball at the start wasn’t good enough and the levels that we’ve reached so far this season, we certainly didn’t reach. If we don’t reach them levels, then it’s going to be a tough ask.

“We’ve got to be up for battle and we didn’t win our individual battles as well as we normally do. We didn’t make it that difficult for them.”