Mark Hughes played down talk of pressure over his position after Saints were held to a 1-1 draw by Watford.

The result means that by the time Saints next play at St Mary’s it will be just one home league win in a calendar year.

Saints were fuming over referee Simon Hooper’s decision to controversially disallow a goal to make it 2-0 against the Hornets, but even so it was another disappointing result in a season that has yielded only one win in 12 games so far.

With Les Reed having got the axe at the end of last week, there has also been speculation over Hughes’ position.

However, he is confident the board will be happy with performances, even if he accepts results must improve.

He said: “There was a change made in midweek and Ralph made a statement.

“Clearly we have got to change results in terms of getting maximum points out of games.

“They have seen all the games and a lot of people have maybe appeared today and it’s the first time they have seen us play and they may go away and think ‘actually Southampton aren’t a bad side.’ That’s what we are. We are a good side.

“Clearly we need to turn things around in terms of getting maximum points.

“The club and the ownership have seen every game this year and they know we are very close.

“It’s fine margins and we need a little bit of help from the officials which we didn’t get today but for the most part I am more than happy with the performance.”