Stoke City boss Mark Hughes believes that his side showed Southampton "too much respect" in their 1-0 defeat at St Mary's Stadium.
Sadio Mane scored the only goal of the game in the 33rd minute to hand the Saints their sixth win of the season. Hughes has admitted that he and his team were too tentative in the clash, especially in the opening 45 minutes.
He told BBC Sport: "We are disappointed to a certain extent because in the first half we were a little bit apprehensive in our play, maybe a consequence of Southampton's great result last time out.
"We showed them too much respect. We conceded from a set play, where the ball was ricocheting around. We were unlucky that it fell to one of their guys and he dispatched it.
"We were better second half, got a little bit of control of the game, and you saw by the reaction of the Southampton crowd at the end that they knew we were pushing to get back on level terms. Credit to Southampton, they are on a great run. It was always going to be a difficult game for us. But when you look back on it, we were a lot closer than we thought."
Stoke are 11th in the Premier League following their defeat to Ronald Koeman's side.
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