Nathaniel Clyne admitted Gareth Bale’s late wonder goal was a “heartbreaker” – but insisted the Saints players have total belief they will stay up.

Former St Mary’s ace Bale struck a stunning 86th minute winner, left, at White Hart Lane that keeps his old team involved in the Premier League relegation battle.

It was a sickening blow for Mauricio Pochettino’s team, who not only controlled much of the game but kept the 23-year-old Spurs ace incredibly quiet for most of the match.

“We did pretty good marking him throughout the whole game and keeping him quiet, but you know quality players are always going to have their chances and he took it, unfortunately,” said Clyne.

“He came inside and shot from outside the box and just broke our hearts really.

“Everyone knows not to give him time on the ball. Whenever he has his first touch just close him down and that’s what we’d done well, up until when he scored.”

Saints, who visit fellow strugglers Sunderland next Sunday, will come under severe pressure if 18th-placed Wigan beat Swansea at the DW Stadium tomorrow.

Clyne said: “It just shows that the season’s not over. We’re not playing like it’s over, we still want to get the points, we still have a target to reach. We’ve got to win our next two games and we have every chance. If we keep playing like we did here today we will have a chance.

“We’ve got belief and we’ve got confidence in all the players that we can do well. We are a good side and we’ve beaten bigger teams than we’re playing against next.

“We will take the positives out of today’s game and how well we played during the game.”

Asked if he will be watching Wigan’s game tomorrow with more interest now, the right-back said: “Yeah, definitely, hopefully they will lose.”

While Saints had to accept defeat at White Hart Lane, Clyne insisted they should have been walking away with all three points.

“Definitely, we created the clearest chances during the game. It’s just a bit disappointing that we didn’t get to take them, but hopefully we can score some more goals in the next game,” he said.

Clyne himself was guilty of missing a gilt-edged chance, having been put through by Rickie Lambert early on, only to fire his right-foot shot inches wide.

“I felt when I shot that it was going in, but it didn’t,” he said. “It just whistled past the post.”