Premiership: Strachan angry at Saints’ shocker

Southampton boss Gordon Strachan tonight lambasted his players for a ‘‘shocking’’ performance in the meek 1-0 surrender to Everton at the St Mary’s Stadium.

The Saints were booed off and Strachan refused to talk to his team after their woeful show, in which the Toffees nailed their away-day jinx.

The Merseysiders - who at kick-off were the Premiership’s joint-worst team on the road, along with rock-bottom Leicester - claimed a fully-deserved victory through Steve Watson’s neat 40th-minute finish.

But while David Moyes’ men are now looking menacingly at the top half of the table, Strachan is brutally assessing his own managerial ability.

‘‘I’m shocked,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m past the disappointed and angry stage and now I have to look at how on earth I, as a manager, can be responsible for that performance.

‘‘I’ve not got an answer yet but I will to analyse myself. There were too many things that disappointed me, so I’ve literally said nothing to the players. When I can compose myself, I’ll talk to them.

‘‘Nobody at the club can absolve themselves of responsibility for that game. We’ve all got to look at ourselves, because if you’d paid your £8 to watch that on pay-per-view, you’d want your money back.

‘‘I’m not accepting the excuse that is was an end-of-season match. Players face questions on the pitch, and the answers for them were self-explanatory today.’’

Everton full-back Watson gave Southampton’s strikeforce a lesson in finishing, with a smart dinked winner after Kevin Campbell’s threaded through-ball.

Most armchair fans who forked out to watch this game on pay-per-view television will wish they had saved their cash, as the contest never really clicked into gear.

Before Watson’s tidy goal, Saints goalkeeper Paul Jones did well to block a strike by Nick Chadwick, who was later stretchered off with a twisted left ankle.

After the break, Jones kept his side in it with two spectacular saves one from Tomasz Radzinski’s volley and the other from Watson’s deflected cross.

Everton boss David Moyes, who will assess Chadwick’s injury tomorrow morning, has all-but mathematically guaranteed his side’s safety and tonight looked ahead to summer rebuilding plans.

‘‘I’ve tried to do the first part of the job, which was avoiding relegation, and now we’ll look at what we’re trying to do here,’’ he said.

‘‘That’s four wins in seven - and that’s a great effort from the players at this time of the season, when wins are hard to come by. All the players worked hard, although it wasn’t as exciting as some other Everton games.

‘‘Three away points are always difficult to come by, but especially so for Everton this season, so I’m very grateful to come away with three points tonight.

‘‘Steve Watson showed great footwork and it was a smashing goal, with a quality striker-style finish. If we’d been a bit more careful in the final third, we’d have got ourselves another goal.’’