SAINTS Women boss Marieanne Spacey-Cale wants her side to take the positives out of the 2023-24 Women's Championship campaign after defeat at Charlton saw them finish fourth.

A win would have seen Saints end their second campaign in the Championship in second place, but goals in each half from Charlton saw them finish runners-up at Southampton's expense.

Tegan McGowan put the hosts head early on when she stole from Kayla Rendell before scoring her second of the afternoon after the break.

Saints came close to getting back to the game when they hit the crossbar on three separate occasions.

Despite the defeat, Saints have achieved their highest-ever Championship finish and earned six points more than they did last season. 

Reacting to her side's ninth loss of the year, Spacey-Cale told Southampton's club media team: “It’s a tough defeat to take because I really felt as though we dominated the game.

“If it was a game of crossbar challenge we would have walked away with the win. Credit to the players, they played some really good football, but we gave away two silly goals.

“It’s hard. When you are trying to play our style of football, you do sometimes get caught out. I’m really proud of the players for their endeavour to try and get back into the game.”

She continued: “There are positives to take from this season. We came here thinking that if we got three points we could finish second, which would have been amazing.

“But we have still finished higher than last year. We have got more points than we did last year.

“There are some real positives to take. We just need to use what we have learned from this campaign to move forward.

"Over the summer we need to make sure we get some rest, recover, and come back fighting stronger."