Southampton boss Nathan Jones was proud of his players in their Carabao Cup semifinal defeat at Newcastle United.

A 2-1 second-leg loss on Tyneside saw Saints defeated 3-1 on aggregate.

Jones said, "I'm disappointed with the first 20 minutes. We were far too passive. The goals were bad, we let runners drift into the box.

"We flagged up those runners into the box from the first leg but we didn't learn.

"Then the reaction was fantastic, we got back into it and pushed them in the second half but we just weren't clinical.

"When we changed and tweaked the system they responded but certain things have to be better.

"Beating relegation is the key one. We've got big games coming up against tough opposition and we need to come through those games positively."