IVAN Juric has conceded Saints have no chance of Premier League survival but demanded all players and staff "be a man" to end the season.

The manager responded "absolutely not" when asked if Saints could still beat the drop to the Championship after Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Wolves.

The loss widened the gap between the league's basement boys and 17th to 17 points, with 27 points still to play for until the end of the season.

However, Saints must still surpass the lowest-ever points total in Premier League history - currently standing at 11, set by Derby County in 2007/08.

Asked how Saints can achieve the three points required, Juric said: "I think that the players, everybody here, we have to be tough, be a man.

"We have to try to do our best until the end and not go down, absolutely. I think we had a really good chance to do the points here. We didn't do it.

"There is always missing something. I hope we do better in the last nine games. Sometimes it's quality. It's obvious when you are nine points.

"Sometimes it's other things. Sometimes you start like today and you have two chances, you didn't score and you can say we are not clinical enough.

"Then sometimes you concede it a lot. Today we don't concede a lot but they scored twice. Something is always missing to make a point."

Juric arrived at St Mary's in December confident that he could turn around the fortunes of a team who were bottom of the table with one win in 16 games.

He has picked up just three points from an available 36, beating Ipswich Town 2-1 in February and losing every other league fixture.

Juric said: "I was much more optimistic. It's a tough moment for everybody, for me, my staff. We were much more optimistic and now it's different."