Fulham manager Marco Silva claimed his side’s opening goal should have stood, but he insisted against making excuses for the upset defeat.
The Cottagers were knocked out of the FA Cup fifth round by Saints, who progressed to the quarter-final of the competition with a 1-0 away win.
Ross Stewart scored the only goal of the game from the spot in the 91st minute, but the home team twice had an opening strike ruled out by officials.
The controversial moment was when Rodrigo Muniz converted after Daniel Peretz launched a goal kick into the back of teammate Ryan Manning.
But referee Jarred Gillett had already blown his whistle due to a rolling ball when the Israeli kicked it, while Muniz was also still inside the Saints box.
“For me, it’s a goal, my thoughts are for me it’s a goal,” said Silva. “As you expect, the game would be different, but I don’t go in that direction.
“To go now in that direction, to talk about that moment, looks like I want to find excuses. I don’t like it; I’d rather see the real picture of the game.
Yes, it’s a goal, but all the other things, looking at ourselves and myself as a manager of this team, we should have done much better.
“Being clear, it’s a very bad day for us. For myself, for the football players, for the football club, and mainly for our fans, definitely.
“The expectations, they were at the level that, in my opinion, they should be, they must be. And we are not good enough, as simple as that.
“We can talk about many things. We had 24 shots, and we didn’t create enough with the 24 shots. We were around their box many, many times.
“The reality of football is that we have to create chances when we have this amount of offence we had. The reality that we were not good enough.
“In the other part of the game, too, the reality is that they had five shots all the game, and in most of those moments, they created chances.
“It’s a sign that you are not really close to the standards that you have to be in terms of defensive transition, reaction when you lose the ball.
“It is probably not the moment to be so emotional, and probably it’s a moment for us to look even deeper because it cannot be just another defeat.
“We lost a big, big chance, when you have to get the responsibility to be the favourites to be playing with a draw that gave us a chance to play at home.
“We were playing against a very good side, a Championship side, and we didn’t get what we wanted, or play the way we should to win the game.”
Fulham’s Timothy Castagne had a second-half goal ruled out for offside, with defender Joachim Andersen infringing with his initially saved header.
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