If any Saints fans were in doubt that the team still needs strengthening to survive in the premier league, then they were given their answer against Wigan Athletic.
It has to be said that Saints were comfortable in the first half of the game, they enjoyed a lot of possesion and only a finger tip save by Ali Al Habsi denied Adam Lallana giving Saints the lead, but eve though Saints had a lot of the ball, it seemed that in the main Wigan were coping well and not stretched.
After the break though Saints were soon behind and it has to be said the way that Wigan carved through the centre of the Saints defence was very worrying and highlighted just why we need to sign central defenders and fast, to be blunt we just arent good enough and speedy enough either physically or in mind.
In fairness Saints had a few chances to level things during the second half, but in the main they were efforts from outside the box which were bog standard saves for the keeper, they were saves that had to be made and decent, but fact of the matter is they werent out of the ordinary.
More worryingly was our inability to change tactics and our delay in doing so, the more the scond half went on the more comfortable Wigan looked and we didnt seem to know what changes to make, the first was puzzling, Ward-Prowse for Davis, a like for like substitution and no change in play or formation, a minute later and Sharpe was on for Rodriguez, a decision that didnt please some sections of the crowd who felt it should have been Guly going off. They had a point, Guly had probably been as good as anyone on the pitch first half, but second he had lost his way a bit, however Guly is the whipping boy and an incident just after the change showed that, firstly Ward Prowse was caught in possession with barely a whimper from the crowd, Guly caught a few minutes later in similar fashion drew some obnoxious comments from many around me.
Sharp's arrival brought a change out of neccessity and at least the striker showed a willingness to run and work and an equaliser looked possible, however with only 14 minutes left on the clock it was a little bit late in the game, add to that the fact that reverting to 4-4-2 seemed to confuse the midfield who didnt seem to be sure who exactly was meant to be playing where.
The second goal for the visitors with a minute left was perhaps symptomatic of the day for Saints, Fonte claimed he was fouled and he did have a case, but the fact was in the Premier you dont get time to dwell on the ball and the central defender had been caught doing just that and paid the price, Kone burying his chance one on one with Kelvin.
This was a harsh lesson for Saints, with 36 games to go there is plenty of time, but werent we saying that six weeks ago with regard to the closing of the transfer window and our lack of quality signings in that period was shown up yesterday at St Mary's, yes Saints have the time to get out of trouble, but the fact is this team is not good enough to do it and unless its improved then it will struggle, Wigan are not a great side but they were streets ahead of us in the way they played and the composure they had, Nigel Adkins has a lot of work to do, but without at least three signings that task will be very difficult indeed.