Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has demanded a swift response from his players as they prepare to face struggling Watford at St Mary’s on Sunday.

Hasenhuttl was disappointed with the way his side surrendered an early lead to fall to only their second home defeat of the season to Newcastle on Thursday night.

And following on from a thumping defeat at Aston Villa, he knows how important it is to return to winning ways ahead of a make-or-break period including an FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester City.

Hasenhuttl told his club’s official website: “Games that are now coming up are decisive for us. We have a home game again and we don’t want to lose again because we want to show that we can do it better – that’s the only target we have.”

Southampton still go into the game sitting in 10th place in the table and face a Watford side surely heading for the drop after Thursday night’s 4-0 defeat at Wolves.

However, with the Hornets having pushed Arsenal at Vicarage Road one week ago, Hasenhuttl is taking nothing for granted ahead of the Sunday afternoon clash.

He added: “The two teams who are facing each other haven’t been successful during the week, so it will be important who makes it better, who analyses better and finds better answers.

“What I expect is if we face the same thing again, that we find better solutions and better moments and then maybe we are more clinical and score the goals we didn’t score (on Thursday).”