IT is too early in the season for Saints’ defeat at Fulham to have been billed a must-win.

But a must-not-lose it certainly was so Saturday’s 3-2 defeat, with Saints’ defensive shortcomings clinically exposed, is a major worry ahead of Premier League matches against Manchester United and Tottenham in the next ten days.

With another pair of pre-Christmas six-pointers looming at Cardiff and in-form Huddersfield, Saints are in the midst of a season-defining few weeks.

Mark Hughes’ frustration is becoming increasingly evident as a growing section of Saints fans calls for his head.

What made Saints’ latest defeat so galling was that the high quality of much of their play was undone by so many rudimentary errors.

Going to Craven Cottage is like returning to a bygone era, especially for a 3pm kick off on a Saturday afternoon.

The re-emergence of Saints’ defensive feet of clay provided a reminder of a footballing truism nearly as old as the ground itself: teams are best when they are built on a solid foundation.

So to see Stuart Armstrong’s two-goal brilliance wiped out by three howlers was teeth-gnashing in the extreme.

Especially as Saints have been relatively tight at the back of late (with the exception of the tennis-score defeat at Manchester City…).

The goalless draws against Newcastle and Bournemouth at least gave Saints something to build on.

But with goals so hard to come by, it is a worrying trend that Saints are so weak when they take the lead.

Instead of giving the team confidence and the desire to score another, it seems to inject fear and a worry about conceding the equaliser that inevitably comes.

It happened twice in the 2-2 draw against Brighton in September, in the 2-1 defeat at home to Leicester and now it has reared its head in successive matches.

It is a psychological barrier that has to be overcome if relegation is to be avoided.

Goals have been hard enough to come by, without gifting them to the opposition.

The referee was not at fault this time, Saints had no one to blame but themselves.

Fulham’s goals were down to mistakes a Tyro League manager would have been disappointed with.

The poor marking of Alexsandar Mitrovic and Andre Schurrle for the first two was inexplicable and Wesley Hoedt’s failure to find row Z was followed by more basic errors for the third.

It was worrying to hear Hughes blame Hoedt’s poor decision making on tiredness – there was still half an hour to play.

But the shortcomings were not entirely restricted to the back four.

Manolo Gabbiadini should have given Saints an early lead and Charlie Austin barely threatened. Oh, what Saints would give for a Mitrovic.