Southampton boss Will Still reckoned he must have “squashed a cat” after his luckless side dominated Swansea but were held to a 0-0 draw.
Saints had 21 shots and hit the post twice, but could not find the back of the net as their winless run at home stretched to four matches.
Afterwards, Still was left wondering how his side had been the victims of such bad luck.
He said: “I can’t believe we haven’t won that. I am delighted with the performance and the quality of what we did. We reduced a really good team to hardly anything.
“I don’t think a team can play any better and not score a goal. We have controlled it and dominated and somehow the ball hasn’t quite got into the back of the net.
“We are doing all the right things, I don’t know what karma or bad luck there is. I don’t know if I’ve squashed a cat!
“It is ridiculous. We’ve had more than 20 shots so I’m totally at peace with how we are performing and training.
“We need half a chance to go in at the moment. I don’t care if it deflects off an ankle and hits the keeper to bobble over the line, we just need one to go in.
“I know what it looks like and I get that people are disappointed but I’m dead proud of what we are actually doing.
“I’d be worried if we weren’t getting there but we are getting there and we are doing everything so right.”
Saints had 15 shots in the first half alone, headlined by the lively Leo Scienza bending against the post from the edge of the box and Nathan Wood’s powerful header.
However, the best chance of the match fell to Caspar Jander in the 76th minute when he conspired to hit the woodwork from four yards after Lawrence Vigouroux had blocked out Adam Armstrong.
Swansea only had two shots on target as they blanked at St Mary’s for the fourth straight visit, but manager Alan Sheehan remained upbeat.
He said: “That is our first good point of the season. The draws we have had have felt like losses. We’ve played better with the ball and come away short of points.
“They created a lot of chances in that spell in the first half. That is the first time a team has created that amount of chances against us, credit to them.
“As they game went on we felt quite comfortable. Ultimately we played against a good team but our mentality to come here and keep a clean sheet was great.
“Can we be better with the ball? Yes, we didn’t create enough opportunities but defensively we were quite resilient.
“Our last two games have been against teams who were in the Premier League last year. We came here and were resilient when we weren’t at our best, it’s a wonderful thing to take out of the game for us.
“Ultimately today is a point gained.”
