Simon Rusk acknowledged his Southampton players were “gutted” after they missed a golden opportunity to move beyond Derby’s record-low Premier League points total but backed them to bounce back from a stoppage-time loss to Fulham.
Jack Stephens’ 14th-minute opener had already-relegated Saints on course for a first home league victory since November, but Emile Smith Rowe levelled for Fulham after 72 minutes to set up a nervy finale at St Mary’s.
A draw would have helped Southampton move onto 12 points and avoid Derby’s unwanted lowest-ever Premier League points total of 11 from the 2007-08 season, only for Ryan Sessegnon to have other ideas as Fulham’s dramatic 2-1 win moved them up to eighth.
“We nearly got a really good result, so of course the lads are gutted, but as the week goes on we can’t be victims about it,” interim boss Rusk reflected.
“We’re going to have to use that and at the end of the day these are the things that drive you on. It felt great last week (at West Ham) and this week it hurts.
“One thing is for sure by the time we get to 3 o’clock next week, we will be ready to go again.
“I don’t think it will be hard to pick the players up. I think they are desperate to finish the season as well as they can.
“We are a relegated team but the focus is we want to finish the season strongly as a group of people pulling in one direction. We’re hoping we can give the supporters as many good moments as possible and as a group of players we can deliver as many points as possible.”
Rusk, who claimed a draw at Fulham in his first caretaker spell in December, watched Southampton make the perfect start after Stephens headed home a superb free-kick delivery by Ryan Manning.
Fulham responded well but Raul Jimenez missed two gilt-edged chances before half-time and Marco Silva made a double change at the break.
The leveller arrived with 18 minutes left when substitute Smith Rowe controlled Alex Iwobi’s pass and had a shot deflected over Aaron Ramsdale to spark wave after wave of Fulham attacks before Adama Traore crossed in for Sessegnon to head in a winner in the second minute of stoppage time.
“In the end it is cruel. For what we’re giving and pound-for-pound for what we’re playing against, I do think we deserved something out of the game,” Rusk insisted.
Silva disagreed but was thrilled to see Fulham keep alive their European qualification prospects.
He said: “From the first minute until the last, the reality is that we are the only team that tries to score goals or tries to play in an offensive way.
“In the second half it was the same story again, one team trying to create chances to score, playing 90 per cent of the time in our offensive half.
“They sat back, they just tried to delay our goal or chances that you can create and I think we did create enough to win the match.”
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