FURIOUS FANS CONFRONT PLAYERS AS SAINTS CRASH
WHERE do Southampton go from here? Mauricio Pellegrino seems lost in trying to turn around a run of nine games without a win and nothing seems to be working. Chairman Ralph Krueger backed Pellegrino earlier in the day but the situation, capped by this defeat by Crystal Palace, is dire. Southampton are only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference, were booed off at the end, and had fans invade the pitch to have words with the players last night. ‘For a big part of this I am responsible, but I am only one part of this context,’ Pellegrino said. ‘We’ve given chances to most of the players to show their qualities, and the reality is, we need to react.’ It all started so well, with Shane Long ending his goal drought, but James McArthur and Luka Milivojevic’s second-half goals reinforced the misery. Southampton actually started this game as the better side. Long was sparky, firing over inside 15 seconds. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg then had a 20-yard drive tipped over too, so the opener was coming. They rushed forward on 17 minutes and when the ball came out to the right Jeremy Pied expertly picked out Long with a low cutback, allowing him to wheel away and belt in his first goal in almost 11 months. Krueger’s pre-match claim that this team were now free of a ‘cloud’ cast by the Virgil van Dijk transfer saga seemed to be coming true. But then Southampton reverted to type. Christian Benteke’s low shot t that had Alex McCarthy stretching ng shortly after the hourmark our acted should have acted as a warning sign. It did not. Moments later a free-kick was not sufficiently cleared and when Andros Townsend knocked the ball back into the box Benteke headed into McArthur’s path anda he stabbed into the roof of thet net. It was a great team goal but better was to come. Townsend led another Palace charge and after linking up with Bakary Sako he found Milivojevic arriving late. The Serb failed from 12 yards
with his late penalty against Manchester City but here, from 25 yards out, he was lethal, curling a superb first-time shot into the bottom-left corner. ‘We know there’s character in this team, there’s determination,’ said manager Roy Hodgson. Having started the Premier League season with seven defeats in a row, Palace are now up to 14th. ‘We were pretty much on the canvas, it’s an incredible achievement,’ Hodgson added. For Southampton, that cloud of misery remains.