Eddie Howe frustrated by Bournemouth's 'game of two halves' at St Mary's

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe blamed his side's first-half performance for their 2-0 defeat to Southampton at St Mary's on Sunday afternoon.

The loss was the visitors' fifth in their last eight Premier League games as Bournemouth remained just a point and a place above the relegation zone.

Howe called the south-coast clash "a game of two halves", with his players' limp showing before the interval - when Southampton scored twice in quick succession - the reason for their latest top-flight setback.

"The second half was everything we wanted the first half to be, but unfortunately it really was a game of two halves for us," Howe said. "Well off the pace in the first half, when Southampton played really well and they made it very difficult for us to get close to them.

"And it was a total reverse in the second half, with the only thing missing from our performance being the goals."

The Saints led 2-0 at the break after well-worked goals from Steven Davis and Graziano Pelle, with Howe full of praise for the home side's two strikes.

"I thought both goals, to be honest, were of high quality," he said. "The ball, layoff, cross and finish for their first was a great goal, but from our perspective we will look at it and know we could have done better in the situation.

"And the second one was a good header from a player who we are well aware has that strength, so disappointing to obviously concede at that time as we had hung in there and if we could have got to half-time then maybe we could have made a positive difference then."

Bournemouth dominated the second half as they went in search of a goal to get them back into the contest, helped by Howe's half-time introduction of Junior Stanislas and Josh King.

"We wanted a little bit more pace in our side," Howe said. "I felt we did not do well without the ball, and we certainly did not do well with the ball - which is our biggest strength - and became our biggest weakness in the first half."

And Howe felt his players could take great heart from how well they performed in the second period, albeit without ever truly testing Maarten Stekelenburg in Southampton's goal.

"I thought second half we got our passing going and had Southampton penned in really for 45 minutes. The lack of clear-cut chances in the second half was obviously a worry, but the overall performance and work ethic of the players was very good.

"Technically we showed we really could compete at this level in the second half, some of our passing and movement was of a really high level.

"And I think we need to stick to our strengths and work on the areas we need to. But there are positives to take, although it is difficult to see that I defeat."