Respected Southampton figure has just dropped a damning verdict of the Watford defeat

Southampton fans would have travelled down to Watford on Sunday afternoon expecting their side to comfortably win on the Championship opening day.

The Hornets didn't have Imran Louza in their lineup, and had just unconvincingly gotten past Crawley Town 1-0 in the EFL Cup, to start the new reign of Alessio Dionisi on an underwhelming first note.

In reality, though, the Hertfordshire hosts were deserved 2-1 winners come the full-time whistle, as the Saints put in a laboured display, next to the energetic spirit coursing through Watford's veins.

It's only the opening day of the season, so there shouldn't be too much cause for concern, but the South Coast side remain rooted to the bottom of the Championship on minus four points, as they try to play catch up with the rest of the intense league.

BBC Radio Solent commentator Adam Blackmore didn't hold back with his thoughts on the poor showing post-match, with the respected St. Mary's figure blasting the performance as being "miles off it."

Blackmore's impassioned thoughts on the Watford defeat

On Tuesday, Blackmore summed up his impassioned thoughts via an article on BBC Sport, with the well-known Saints presence noting that the loss at Vicarage Road had "flattened" him.

It was a very articulately written piece, with this large chunk of text sticking out the most to me.

He stated: "Should we have said "well, it's only the first game" and "it's early in the season, they will get better"? As I write this, the answer is still no.

"Saints have set very high standards under Tonda Eckert and we all expected that they would hit their stride early and swat Watford aside. It never happened.

"The reason I am not dismissing the loss as "one of those games" is because Saints have publically stated that they want automatic promotion  and they had nearly all of last season's best side on the pitch.

When you state your lofty ambitions, you have to back it up on the pitch. They were miles off the standards they set in the second half of last season."

It is a major concern that a team that boasted Leo Scienza, Cyle Larin, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and many other regular first-teamers from last campaign - which nearly ended in the ecstasy of promotion - looked so off the pace.

With their points deduction, as well, it's going to make promotion really hard to reach, if more passive displays are served up.

Hopefully, all this negativity in the air will pass with a win against Stoke City, when Championship action returns to St. Mary's, or the vocal commentator in question might have to pen some more negative post-match musings.

Hopefully, a win against Stoke is on the horizon

There will be a lot of pressure on the Southampton players to put in a much better performance when the Potters come to town.

Indeed, if another flat 45 minutes is served up, like the opening half at Vicarage Road, the St. Mary's masses will make their feelings known.

The hope will be that Eckert has drilled into his players that the performance at Watford, for the most part, was unacceptable for a team that wants to be in and around the automatic promotion spaces.

If another loss did arrive at Southampton's door, it would be intriguing to see the post-match reactions, as neutrals online certainly took great joy in belittling the Saints after their Watford setback.

Fingers crossed, a positive and assured victory can be clinched, instead, with Eckert praying that the sobering Vicarage Road defeat was just his team being flummoxed by Watford's unrelenting energy, and not a more sinister sign that his team will be way off the promotion places.

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