(Reuters) - Southampton's players and coaching staff have pledged to donate their wages from Friday's humiliating 9-0 defeat by Leicester City to the club's charitable foundation in an attempt to put things right with their supporters.
Leicester recorded the biggest English top-flight away win by thrashing 10-man Southampton at St Mary's, with hat-tricks from Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy helping to inflict Saints' worst home defeat in their 133-year history.
"The squad has been ... working on putting things right for the club's supporters," Southampton said in a statement https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2019-10-27/southampton-football-club-first-team-players-staff-wage-donation-to-saints-foundation.
"As the first step towards that, the group has decided that they wish to donate their wages from the day of the Leicester game to Saints Foundation, in order to help the vital work that is conducted by the charity."
The players would look to make further amends in the upcoming double-header against Manchester City, who Southampton face first in the League Cup on Tuesday and then in the Premier League on Saturday.
Saints' Austrian manager Ralph Hasenhuettl said his team would not stay up this season unless they found a way to improve.
"We must know that when we play like this, we have no chance to stay in this league, that is for sure. Everybody knows this. It's about us now, to try and find a way to do better than this," he told reporters.
The defeat sent Southampton, who lost Ryan Bertrand to an early red card, into the relegation zone, while Leicester stayed third in the table, eight points behind leaders Liverpool.
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)