STINGS IN THE TAIL
‘That’s our little bit of payback... the second part of 9-0 story is all about us’
HOW Ralph Hasenhuttl must have been tempted to drop Brendan Rodgers a text on his way home.
The Southampton boss was given the managerial equivalent of a patronising pat on the head by his Leicester counterpart after being humiliated 9-0 on his own turf 78 days ago.
Rodgers’ message to the Austrian on that cruel October episode of Friday night live was that he ‘could bounce right back’.
Well the Saints did that at the King Power alright – coming from behind to secure a victory over a team with designs on qualifying for the Champions League, with goals from Stuart Armstrong and the in-form Danny Ings.
The three points were precious enough for a club battling to move away from the relegation zone.
But for Hasenhuttl and his players this was the afternoon when they restored their pride.
“We didn’t speak about revenge before the game,” said the Saints boss.
“But it was never going to be a normal game because of the special history after the first clash.
“So we pushed the players’ buttons during the week and that made this performance possible.
“We just wanted to show everybody that we now do things much better and that this team has really changed.
“This is a little bit of payback. We will never forget the result of the first game but the second part of the story was about us.”
Hasenhuttl raced onto the pitch to thank his players at the final whistle before they took a bow in front of the 1,241 travelling fans who invited the home supporters to stick their 9-0 where the sun doesn’t shine.
Ings’ late winner was his 14th goal of the season – but he could have gone home with the match ball.
He should have scored in the sixth minute when he burst clear thanks to Harvey Barnes’ wayward pass, but was denied by Kasper Schmeichel’s brilliant double save.
And when Dennis Praet fired Leicester ahead eight minutes later with his first goal for the club, the visitors must have feared the worst.
Jamie Vardy was sent clear by Ayoze Perez’s ball over the top and served up a delicious cross for the Belgian midfielder to gobble up.
Bookies were offering odds of 200/1 for Leicester to repeat their nine-goal romp. But Southampton were level within five minutes when Armstrong cut inside Ben Chilwell to beat Schmeichel thanks to a deflection off James Maddison’s elbow. Ings hit the bar twice in the space of 30 seconds just before the break. First he swept Armstrong’s cross against the woodwork before shivering the timber again with a stunning half-volley. In the second half, it took a goalline clearance by Caglar Soyuncu to thwart Jack Stephens. And there was another huge let-off for the home side just after the hour. Referee Lee Mason had no doubts about pointing to the penalty spot after
Soyuncu had barged over Shane Long. But the decision was reversed after a VAR check confirmed that the Irishman’s shoulder was offside.
But Southampton’s moment of redemption arrived in the 80th minute.
Ings was sent through by substitute Che Adams to beat Schmeichel with a toe-poked finish that bounced home off the keeper’s legs.
And it needed a brilliant Schmeichel save to prevent Ings scoring again soon afterwards.
Jonny Evans thought he had brought the home side level in the dying minutes only for his bullet header to be ruled out after a VAR check.
Rodgers (left) said: “Credit to them. I always felt this would be a dangerous game – and so it proved. It’s a sore one today but we will analyse it and look to improve.
“This isn’t a group that is complacent. There was no notion that we would just have to turn up to get a similar result.
“We just didn’t play well.”