Andy Monkhouse gave Pools the lead after 10 minutes, but a quickfire equaliser from Lee Barnard and Ricky Lambert's 30th goal of the season gave the Saints a 2-1 lead going into the break.

Papa Waigo increased Southampton's advantage in the second period, and Neil Austin's strike gave Hartlepool hope, but Saints held on to seal the victory.

Turner said: "You cannot give teams of the quality of Southampton chances like that because they will punish you. We nearly got a result but we gave two goals away and left ourselves with a mountain to climb.

"We started off very well and I cannot knock them for that but if you make mistakes they will punish you and we made three blatant ones."

Source: Team Talk