Stoke ends Saints’ unbeaten run
Southampton 0
Stoke 1
Bojan Krkic scored the only goal of the afternoon to continue Stoke City’s impressive run with their first win at Southampton in 25 years yesterday. Southampton had not lost a home league game to Stoke since October 1980, but that statistic fell early when Spanish striker Bojan flicked in an Erik Pieters cross for his third goal of the season. Mark Hughes’ side have lost just once away this term and climb to tenth, a point behind Southampton who suffered their first defeat in their last seven league matches.
In an evenly-matched tie in St Mary’s, Southampton’s Jordy Clasie had the first shot at goal but sent wide with Dusan Tadic also off target. Bojan missed a chance on nine minutes but a minute later made no mistake following a charge by Swiss winger Xherdan Shaqiri down the right to play to Marko Arnautovic. Austrian Arnautovic passed to full-back Pieters, whose cross was flicked in at the near post by the unmarked Bojan. Saints had little to offer in attack, with Tadic missing a couple of chances and Virgil van Dijk heading Steven Davis’ freekick over.
Sadio Mane came on with 20 minutes to go and came close only for Potters goalkeeper Jack Butland to save his curling effort from outside the box. Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam both missed chances to add to Stoke’s tally late in the game with a header from Saints’ Jose Fonte coming close to getting the equalizer. After a slow start to this season Stoke are hitting form with five wins in their last seven league games, including their 1-0 defeat of champions Chelsea, losing just once in seven away games this season at Arsenal. Ronald Koeman’s Saints drop to eighth after their third defeat at St Mary’s this season. — AFP