Pearson sees his Saints fall apart as angry fans stage first-half walkout

Two goals in as many minutes midway through the first half from Peter Halmosi and Jim Paterson took upwardly mobile Plymouth to seventh in the Championship.

But for Saints new boss Nigel Pearson it was a graphic illustration of why the club has now only won once in its last 12 games.

Scroll down for more

During his reign in Cuba, Fidel Castro outlasted nine serving presidents of the United States.

However in his dotage he would need a calculator to work out how many managers Southampton have had in the same period.

Nigel Pearson made his debut last night as manager number 20 since 1959 but if the crowd at St Mary's was anything to go by he could soon become another of the club's managerial casualties.

One wag suggested that the hand signals from Plymouth boss Paul Sturrock, another Southampton exmanager, were not directions to his own team but advice to Pearson on how he could find the pay office and pick up his P45.

And the Saints supporters showed their disenchantment with the club by staying away.

The 32,000 capacity stadium was clearly less than half full, with no-show season ticket holders included in the gate figures.

On a freezing night with the alternative attraction of Champions League on TV, the last thing Southampton's dwindling followers wanted was to see another poor performance under another smallname manager.

At least the club's officials took considerable effort to produce an up-to-date programme to introduce Pearson.

But his words: "You look at the history of the club and it's infrastructure and facilities and there is no doubt there is massive potential," merely echoed a long line of his predecessors.

In reality Southampton are staring into an abyss — £36million in debt, losing £1m a month and the family's jewels such as Theo Walcott long since sold.

There is little reason for optimism. Last week there were reports that Irish cinema tycoon Tom Anderson was preparing a cash injection by buying the 30 per cent shareholding of former chairman Rupert Lowe.

But the silence ever since from his office in Dublin has been ominous.

And there was an eerie silence too at St Mary's as Pearson made three changes from Saturday's FA Cup defeat by Bristol Rovers, significantly leaving out midfield sleepwalkers Inigo Idiakez and Jhon Viafara.

In reaction to the new manager, Saints made a promising start and the crowd were temporarily lifted by the sight of Andrew Surman firing in a 30 yard shot just wide of the Plymouth goal.

But on the half hour, play-off hopefuls Plymouth put a dampener on Saints' night.

Surman gave the ball away needlessly in midfield, Lilian Nalis fed Halmosi and he scored with a fierce shot from 12 yards out.

A minute later the Hungarian found himself in a similar position, only to shoot into the side netting.

But the signs that Southampton's spirits had broken again emerged within seconds. Breaking from midfield, Jermaine Easter fed the ball wide to Paterson on his right and he was left unchallenged to curl a low shot wide of goalkeeper Kelvin Davis from the edge of the area.

At 2-0 down, fans from the Northam End of St Mary's made their protests immediately by walking out of the ground in their dozens and there was no effort from their team to get back into the match.

Saints had two early chances to pull themselves back into the game early in the second half but Marek Saganowski headed over at the far post and Wayne Thomas managed to miss the target from eight yards out.

But Plymouth always looked dangerous on the break and it took a great save from Davis to prevent Steve Maclean adding a third for the visitors.