LONG GOAL NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE SORRY SOUTHAMPTON
AT Southampton, one long wait is over — but another goes on. Shane Long scored his first goal for 326 days as Mauricio Pellegrino’s side hinted at one of their finest performances of the season in the first half of this game. Forty-five minutes later and Crystal Palace were leaving with three points, Saints’ run without a win was up to nine games and there were chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ ringing around St Mary’s. Pellegrino knows this malaise cannot go on. His side are now 17th in the Premier League. Southampton are backing their boss for now, but something needs to change. Saints started with intent and Long could have scored inside the opening 15 seconds, the Irishman linking up well with Dusan Tadic to take advantage of a knock-down, but his shot was blasted over. As Wilfried Zaha sought to lead Crystal Palace counters, Southampton were dominating and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s 20-yard drive was tipped over by Wayne Hennessey. With lone striker Long suffering such a drought, though, there are always fears that Saints would not capitalise on their dominance. Fortunately for the hosts, Long struck after 17 minutes. Southampton rushed forward again and this time when the ball came out to the right Jeremy Pied expertly picked out Long with a low cutback, allowing him to wheel off the defence before belting his shot past the rooted Hennessey. Relief was the overriding emotion. Long and Sofiane Boufal were linking well up front, and chairman Ralph Krueger’s pre-match comments that this team were now free of a ‘cloud’ cast by the Virgil van Dijk transfer saga seemed to be coming true. But Roy Hodgson replaced Yohan Cabaye with Patrick van Aanholt at halftime, reshaping his formation, and suddenly Palace were much improved. Left back Van Aanholt’s free-kick was not sufficiently cleared and when Andros Townsend knocked the ball back into the box Christian
Benteke headed into James McArthur’s path and he stabbed into the roof of the net. It was a great team goal but better was to come. Townsend led another Palace charge and after a one-two with Bakary Sako he found Luka Milivojevic lurking on the edge of the area. The Serb might have failed from the penalty spot against Manchester City but here, from much further out, he was lethal — curling into the bottom-left corner first-time. A wonderful goal that ensured the cloud over Southampton remains. SOUTHAMPTON (4-1-3-2): McCarthy 6; Pied 7, Stephens 5.5, Yoshida 5, Bertrand 5.5; Romeu 5; Ward-Prowse 5.5 (Davis 70min, 6), Tadic 5 (Redmond 79); Hojbjerg 6.5 (Gabbiadini 75, 6); Long 7, Boufal 6. Subs not used: Forster, Lemina, Targett, Bednarek. Scorer: Long 17. Manager: Mauricio Pellegrino 6. CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-2-1): Hennessey 6; Fosu-Mensah 6.5, Kelly 6, Tomkins 6, Schlupp 5 (Sako 64, 5); Cabaye 5 (Van Aanholt 45, 6), MILIVOJEVIC 7.5, McArthur 7; Townsend 7, Zaha 7; Benteke 7. Subs not used: Speroni, Lee, Souare, Delaney, Riedewald. Booked: Fosu-Mensah. Scorers: McArthur 69, Milivojevic 80. Manager: Roy Hodgson 7.5. Referee: Stuart Attwell 6.5. Attendance: 25,000.