Southampton defender Bella-Kotchap: We can only go game-to-game

Southampton defender Armel Bella-Kotchap believes that he and his teammates need to keep the faith.

The centre-back spoke about his side's predicament after a defeat to Newcastle United at the weekend.

Despite taking the lead, the Saints lost 3-1 at St. James' Park and are staring relegation in the face.

Post-game, Bella-Kotchap told club media: I think we had a good first half, the second half was really tough.

We deserved the lead from the first half but during the second it was really tough for us. They played on the front foot and tried to bring the crowd into it.

It was a really tough game against a great opponent and they deserved the win. I think we tried to defend and they played more front footed, with quality."

He added: They brought two strikers in. It's tough, it's tough to defend against these strikers but we knew that and should have done better.

The quality from them was really good today and that's why they won. We need to keep our heads up and just go game-by-game and see what the outcome is."