Saints boss wins but boo boys still attack him
second half when he took off midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” they sang as he replaced Hojbjerg with Mario Lemina.
Pellegrino (right) said: “When I make a change I try to do my best for the team. No one has the same opinion about football or about who has to play.
“But everybody in football can express his opinion and I respect this.
“I wasn’t upset, it’s part of life.
“The fans have been great from the beginning to the end, from the first game until today, I can’t complain about anything.
“We had to be really grateful with the mood in our stadium because they have been supporting and behind us all the time.
“I understand when the fans have their opinion but when I do something I am doing something about the game and thinking about my players, not about the fans.
“I make my decision thinking about my experience and what is best in this moment.”
Much of that frustration stems from the fact that the last of Southampton’s four wins in the Premier League this season came in November.
No wonder this was a game that Championship promotion hopefuls Fulham believed they had a chance of winning. Had they not missed three decent scoring opportunities, they might have got something out of it. But Oliver Norwood wanted an extra touch when he was through, on-loan Chelsea forward Lucas Piazon completely missed the ball when well-placed and Denis Odoi blazed the best of the lot over. Each of those chances came with Southampton ahead after Ward-Prowse’s first-half effort. Fulham had chances to clear Sofiane Boufal’s ball into the box just before the half-half mark but they failed to do so and the Southampton man took advantage.
Jack Stephens went close to doubling the Saints’ lead with a header from a Ward-Prowse corner but hit the bar.
Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic said: “It was 50-50 and sometimes you depend on small details.
“They showed in one situation their Premier League quality – score the goal, win the game.
“We created chances but when you play against a Premier League team you must be clinical in one of the moments.”