Morgan Schneiderlin says Southampton are refusing to give up on their Champions League aspirations despite Saturday 's damaging defeat at Stoke . Saints missed the chance to close the gap on fourth-placed Manchester City to two points as they went down to a 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium . Schneiderlin opened the scoring with his first Barclays Premier League goal since September , but a mistake from Saints goalkeeper Kelvin Davis allowed Mame Diouf to equalise and substitute Charlie Adam stole all three points with six minutes to go . Morgan Schneiderlin fires Southampton into the lead at the Britannia with a close-range finish . Schneiderlin accepts the Europa League is a more realistic goal for Southampton now , but he insists the players still have faint hopes of qualifying for the premier club competition in Europe . 'We wanted to achieve the top four and now it 's going to be even more complicated but we 're not going to give up , ' the midfielder told Southampton 's website . 'We wanted to give the fans the most prestigious competition but if not , we want to give them the Europa League . We want to secure European football for this club , that 's our main target . ' Stoke had struggled to create any decent chances before Davis ' misjudgement handed them a way back into the game less than two minutes into the second half . The 38-year-old declined to catch Steven Nzonzi 's shot , believing it was going wide . The ball struck the angle and the goalkeeper had no time to respond before Diouf swept in from eight yards . Schneiderlin ( left ) makes a run as Stoke's Steven Nzonzi gives chase on Saturday . Saints manager Ronald Koeman was loathe to criticise his goalkeeper after the match . ' I call it unlucky , ' the Dutchman said . ' I will have to watch it back . I do n't know if it was a cross or a shot , and maybe the wind was part of the difficulty for Kelvin . ' Saints ' demise was complete when substitute Adam nipped the ball away from Sadio Mane in the box and swept a volley past Davis . Mame Biram Diouf swept in from 10 yards as Stoke forced an equaliser in the 47th minute . After scoring a 65-yard wonder goal against Chelsea just a couple of weeks ago , Adam was unhappy at starting the game on the bench , but he thinks he gave his manager the perfect response . 'It 's nice to keep scoring and win the game , ' the Scot said . 'It was disappointing to be on the bench and I think it was a great way to react by not starting the game . ' The win moved Stoke to within four points of their 50-point target for the season . Charlie Adam secured all three points for Stoke as the hit the winner with six minutes remaining . And Adam believes the Potters can make up the one-point gap that separates them from eighth-placed Swansea . He said : 'We 're edging nearer to doing better than last season and since the manager came in , our aim is to keep improving year upon year . 'We are a top-10 club and we want to consolidate ourselves in that position , so we want to keep pushing on for the remaining games of the season . 'It will be difficult , but we will keep pushing on and if we can finish in eighth place then we will be very happy . ' Ronald Koeman applauds the Saints fans as their dreams of Champions League qualification all but ended .
Southampton went down five-1 to Stoke at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday . Morgan Schneiderlin opened the scoring in the fivefivend minute . The Saints are now 2 points adrift of fourth place .