Mauricio Pellegrino says he respects calls made by Lee Mason in win over West Ham

Mauricio Pellegrino said he respected referee Lee Mason's decisions in their controversial 3-2 victory over West Ham.

The Saints ended their goal drought at St Mary's and increased 10-man West Ham's misery with a victory secured by a stoppage-time penalty from Charlie Austin.

Saints were the beneficiary of some dubious calls from Mason, who sent-off Marko Arnautovic in the first-half after the Austrian elbowed Jack Stephens and then awarded a penalty for Jose Fonte's foul on Steven Davis, from which Dusan Tadic - who could have been sent-off himself for a wild tackle on Javier Hernandez - scored.

A double from Hernandez, either side of half-time, drew the visitors level but Mason awarded a debatable late penalty for a foul by Pablo Zabaleta.

"I haven't seen the replay [of the key decisions] and sometimes when the referee makes a decision you have to respect them," said Pellegrino

"When they are for you you are happy; when it's against you have to suffer and to keep going."

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Despite the victory, Southampton struggled for long periods of the second-half against the 10-man Hammers.

Pellegrino admitted that they under-performed at times and must improve at dealing with the physicality of opposition teams.

"Maybe they are stronger than us and they were playing this type of game with free-kicks, long free-kicks, deep free-kicks," said Pellegrino.

"The majority of the problems for us were in this type of moment.

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"After the second goal we were a little bit relaxed but not in terms of concentration, in terms of trying to be more clinical to score the third one and try to kill the game.

"When you give the opponent some opportunities like today you will be in trouble and this is something we have to improve."