Schneiderlin rues United comeback
3 September 2012 07:26
Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin was in despair following his side's last-gasp 3-2 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
The Frenchman scored his maiden English Premier League goal to give the hosts a 2-1 lead in the 55th minute, but Robin van Persie struck twice in the final three minutes to complete his hat-trick and earn United all three points.
Speaking afterwards, Schneiderlin expressed his disappointment with the result, confirming it made his landmark strike a bittersweet moment.
"It's my first Premier League goal and my first one at St Mary's as well, so that's good, but I'm gutted that we lost the game and that's the only thing in my mind right now," he told the Southampton website.
"We gave everything for 87 minutes and in five minutes we lost the game. That's what we need, to learn now to win games, because that's the second time we've been 2-1 up now and finished 3-2 so all the effort we have put in has been for nothing," he said, referring to Southampton's defeat at Manchester City in the opening weekend of the campaign.
"We've learned a lot from this match, though, and we're going to try to work hard on the training ground on the bad things that happened because that is important."
Despite his side's late defeat, the former Strasbourg man insisted Nigel Adkins' side could take plenty of inspiration from their performance.
"Manchester United may have won the game but there are still a lot of positives to take away," Schneiderlin said.
"In both games against Manchester City and United we went 2-1 up so you could say we lost six points but these are the two best sides in England so we've done very well against them and we need to focus on the next game.
"We have a little break now to adjust everything and hopefully against Arsenal we'll be on top again but this time we'll win it."
The midfielder also dismissed suggestions the upcoming international break may disrupt Southampton's preparations for their clash with Arsenal.
"I don't think it's a bad thing," he said.
"We have some new players and I know some are going on international duty but we have a week and a half now to prepare for the next game and to work on everything to come back even stronger.
"It's going to be a long season - it's a marathon - and we need to be ready now to win games when we're in front."
