Southampton were relegated from the Premier League after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat against Fulham.
Second-half goals from Carlos Vinicius and Aleksandar Mitrovic condemned Southampton to the drop at St Mary’s.
Mitrovic was a second-half substitute for Fulham on his return from an eight-game ban and just six minutes after his introduction, the Serbia striker rose to meet Harry Wilson’s cross to compound Southampton’s despair.
Captain James Ward-Prowse, who has made 407 appearances for Southampton expressed his disappointment to Sky Sports:
It’s disappointing but it’s a moment that has been coming. We’d put ourselves in a difficult position and I thought we did well to take it to this stage of the season. When these sorts of things happen, you go away individually and as a club and reflect on whether we did everything we could to achieve our goal.
I don’t think we have and that’s a shame as I feel it is about having no regrets and leaving everything out there. Over the course of the season that has caught up with us. Ultimately that’s why we are where we are now.
Fulham’s seventh away win of the Premier League season moves them up to ninth in the table. They were also on track for a first top-half finish since 2012.
They however will be playing in the Championship next season.
