Mauricio Pochettino declared himself disappointed but not frustrated as Saints were held to a 2-2 draw by Stoke.

The Saints boss felt his side, who twice led in the game at St Mary’s, were good value for the win at St Mary’s but still praised the performance of his players.

He said: “I wouldn’t say it was frustrating, I would say it was disappointing.

“I think over the full 90 minutes we deserved to win the game but in football you can’t deserve to win a game, you need to show you can win the game and it wasn’t to be.”

Rickie Lambert fired in a brilliant free kick after six minutes to give Saints the lead but they had to settle for a draw.

“It was a great goal but the only but I would say to that is that after we got that first goal we weren’t aggressive enough to go on and get the second that would have put the game to bed,” said Pochettino.

“We conceded a soft goal, it was 1-1, then we got the lead again and it was 2-1 but we weren’t able to hold onto that lead and conceded a second goal and perhaps we needed a bit more aggressiveness to maintain the lead.

“In the second half we practically nullified Stoke and were creating all the chances but in the end it just wasn’t to be.”