Pul makes his point as hitmen fire blanks
De Gea 5; Young 6, Smalling 6, Lindelof 6, Shaw 6; Pereira 7 (Fred 82nd), McTominay 7, Pogba 7; Rashford 6 (Chong 90th), Lukaku 8, Sanchez 5 (Dalot (52nd) 6)
THE 10th Premier League win in 12 games for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer surely means his name is about to be etched on the Manchester United manager’s door permanently.
Expect executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward to order the paint any day now and give the Molde magician the full-time role with United fourth in the Premier League table, just three points behind Tottenham.
It was a spectacular win as Solskjaer got the nod of approval from Sir Alex Ferguson – who was sharing a deep conversation alongside pop legend Mick Hucknall.
Surely giving the Norwegian the job is ‘Simply Read’.
Romelu Lukaku delivered a double after Andreas Pereira scored United’s first to equalise Yan Valery’s opener for Southampton and James Ward-Prowse weighed in with an equaliser for 2-2.
The United fans belted out “Please don’t take my Solskjaer away” – and never was the chorus more fitting on a day belonging to the man once known as the Baby Faced Assassin and his hitmen.
Solskjaer said: “You forget you are overtired. You just run. You want the ball delivered in and around the box because you know we have that quality.
“We have done it so many times but as a manager it’s not a way that you want to endure it. You want to be comfortable – and we should have been two up in the first five minutes.”
Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, who thought his side merited a couple of penalties, said: “We deserved more – but you also need good decisions from the referee.
“Mainly in the first half we had a very good performance. And it wasn’t only through luck we were in the lead, we played fantastic tactically.”
United showed their intent with only three minutes on the clock. Lukaku was the first to react and released a low left-foot shot comfortably saved by Angus Gunn.
The Saints keeper then had to be fully alert to tip over a Pereira effort before blocking Lukaku again in a real scramble.
Southampton had no answer to the pressure but amazingly should have opened the scoring in the 11th minute. Defender Jannik Vestergaard rose to meet a Ward-Prowse delivery but powered his header into the stands.
The visitors screamed for a penalty when Chris Smalling clashed with Ryan Bertrand with a shirt tug looking likely but referee Stuart Attwell waved away appeals.
Hasenhuttl’s disappointment was replaced with euphoria, though, in the 26th minute.
There looked little danger when Valery picked the ball up on the right and released a rocket which bent keeper David De Gea’s fingers on the way into the top corner.
And on the stroke of half-time Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg drove straight into De Gea’s arms much to the relief of the United No.1.
The hosts flew out of the blocks after the restart and substitute Diogo Dalot’s first touch was a great ball to Marcus Rashford who headed just wide.
Dalot was in the thick of it again in the 53rd minute to pick out Pereira who bent a brilliant strike into the top corner to spark wild celebrations on the home bench.
Six minutes later Pereira found Lukaku and the Belgium hitman switched his step to drill low into the bottom corner with Saints defenders appealing for offside.
But, amazingly, in the 75th minute Southampton were level with yet another top-drawer strike.
Ward-Prowse curled a superb free-kick into the top corner to leave De Gea clawing fresh air.
It looked a fair result until Lukaku popped up from nowhere to fire home a spectacular winner in the 88th minute.
Solskjaer’s jubiliation would have been even more intense if Paul Pogba had put his spot-kick away in the dying minutes after Rashford had been brought down by substitute Stuart Armstrong. SOUTHAMPTON: Gunn 7; Valery 7, Yoshida 5 (Gallagher 88th), Vestergaard 7, Bednarek 6, Bertrand 7; Ward-Prowse 7, Romeu 6, Hojbjerg 7; Redmond 7, Austin 5 (Armstrong (63rd) 5) Romelu Lukaku S Attwell PSG (A), March 6 Spurs (H), March 9 TONY PULIS admitted Middlesbrough only had themselves to blame for not picking up all three points at strugglers Wigan Athletic.
Neither side were able to break the deadlock at the DW Stadium with the home team by far the happier to come away with a point.
Promotion-chasing Boro squandered a gilt-edged chance in either half, with Britt Assombalonga missing an open goal before the break.
After the restart, Ashley Fletcher rounded Wigan goalkeeper Jamie Jones only to fire into the side-netting.
And Pulis was left to reflect on two points that got away.
“The players have given it everything again,” he said.
“There’s no easy games in this league, coming to Wigan is not easy, not with the results they’ve had here. “But you need to take your chances and it’s the same old story.
“We had more opportunities again today, I saw four occasions when we could have played people in.
“They’re simple passes and we’re overplaying.
“And when we do get the really clear goalscoring opportunities, like we did, we’ve got to score them.”
Wigan have picked up only three points this season from losing positions and Pulis felt the opening goal was always going to be decisive.
“We scored a goal at a good time at Blackburn recently, and needed to do that here, but we didn’t,” he said.
“They got people behind the ball and made it difficult for us. We needed that goal to open the game up.”
Wigan boss Paul Cook was more than happy to add another point to the total and extend his side’s unbeaten run to five matches.
“I would suggest that was a fair result,” he said.
“If someone had offered us a point before the game we’d have taken it.
“With the calibre of player they have and the threat they pose, we knew there would be times we’d have to defend.
“The lads did that relatively well, and the game has panned out pretty much how we expected.”