Jose Fonte described tonight’s Capital One Cup exit as the worst moment of his Saints career and apologised to the club’s fans for the team’s performance.

Ronald Koeman’s men endured a dismal evening at Bramall Lane, as League One outfit Sheffield United dumped them out of the competition at the quarter-final stage.

In truth, the 1-0 scoreline inflicted by the Blades probably ended up flattering Saints, who were second best all night, as they slipped to a fifth consecutive defeat.

“That was the worst moment in my Southampton career, because it’s not every day that you can be in a semi-final and that was something that we were really looking forward to,” said Fonte, who has been at the club for almost five years.

“Everyone is frustrated and angry, but we can only blame ourselves and we are the only ones who can take us out of this horrible situation that we are in now.”

The team captain, who encouraged the players over to the travelling supporters after the final whistle, added: “I just want to apologise for the 4,000 fans that made the effort to come here.

“What can we say? I think it’s pretty obvious how we are feeling at the moment – tough period, but only ourselves can take us out of this bad run.”

As for where it went wrong, Fonte felt some of the team did not adapt to the challenge that Sheffield United posed.

“I think some players are not used to what’s League One and what’s Championship,” he said.

“You don’t have time on the ball, and we was warned for that, but when you don’t have the experience, until you deal with it and you experience what’s League One and Championship, you don’t know, and what’s a cup game.

“We tried to show them that it was going to be hard, but, having said that, the players that we have and the quality that we have, we should have done much better, should have taken care of the ball much better and created much more chances and really put them on the back foot and it’s not good enough – at the moment it’s not good enough.”

Fonte has called on the players to now pick themselves up and respond with a positive performance and result when they host Everton on Saturday.

“We’ve started already,” he said.

“Obviously, it’s not going to be easy, but we’ve started already after the game with a couple of words, because there’s no other way apart from picking yourself up and go again Saturday, because otherwise we’re going to keep losing games if we don’t pick ourselves up and come out of the shell, because there’s no point in hiding yourself now.

“You need to stand up and be counted.”

Fonte added: “Fortunately, we have one of the best fans – if not the best fans – in the country. I know that they will be behind us.

“They’re disappointed, but, obviously, they know the situation isn’t easy. We’re missing a lot of players, but we will try and give them something to cheer about.”