Juric 'sorry' as Southampton blow chance to avoid unwanted record

Southampton boss Ivan Juric apologized to fans after his struggling side blew a chance to avoid becoming the worst team in Premier League history in Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.

Matheus Franca's stoppage-time header for Palace cancelled out Paul Onuachu's opener at St. Mary's to deny Southampton only their third league win in a wretched campaign.

Juric's bottom of the table side now have 10 points -- still one shy of Derby's Premier League record low tally of 11 in 2007-08.

Southampton -- 19 points from safety with eight games left -- will be condemned to relegation at the weekend if they lose at Tottenham and Wolves beat Ipswich.

That would make Saints the first team to be consigned to the drop with seven matches still to play.

Even the 2007-08 Derby team had six games left, as did Huddersfield in 2019 and Sheffield United four seasons ago.

Faced with the inevitability of relegation sooner rather than later, Juric tried to placate long-suffering supporters.

"I'm really sorry for the fans and the guys that they didn't win because I think they deserved it," he said.

"I'm very proud of the way we played today and very disappointed we didn't get the win because we did almost everything good.

"I think the players made a step forward. I had a very good feeling we could compete today.

"We gain one point, we have to prepare well the next game and if we play like this every game we will gain the points.

"We just have to find a way to perform on Sunday to make the fans happy and to try to do our best."