AUSTIN’S A RIGHT CHARLIE!
Saints hitman’s double miss
HOTSHOT Charlie Austin fluffed his chance to shatter Leicester’s unbeaten home run.
Claudio Ranieri’s champions haven’t been beaten on their own patch in more than a year but Southampton striker Austin should have changed that.
Five goals in his last four games has seen Austin’s St Mary’s career belatedly take off.
The former QPR man was one of a handful of players yesterday hoping to impress new England boss Gareth Southgate who was watching from the stands.
He was unlucky to see a first-half effort bounce off the inside of a post but also missed a couple he knows he should have buried.
He’s been deadly of late but sent a close-range header straight into Kasper Schmeichel’s chest and was then thwarted by the goalkeeper near the death.
He cheekily tried to chip him late on only to see the Dane stretch out a giant hand and pluck the ball out of the sky.
Late sub James Ward-Prowse fared no better. He should have wrapped up victory just two minutes after coming on but blazed his shot over with the goal at his mercy.
Ranieri admitted his relief saying: “I’m happy because Southampton were better than us and deserved to win. Schmeichel made two or three crucial saves and they made mistakes in front of goal, fortunately. My players all gave 100 per cent but Southampton just played better.”
Saints boss Claude Puel said: “Charlie is disappointed and that’s a shame but we did make some good chances.
Tired
“The one that hit the post was actually harder than the one where he tried to chip the goalkeeper.”
Leicester looked tired while Saints also threatened to shoot themselves in the foot during an entertaining opening 45 minutes.
They got in a spot of real bother on a couple of occasions – and both times it was their own doing.
Virgil van Dijk under-hit a back pass to the keeper and Jamie Vardy seized on it.
He actually rounded Fraser Forster but by the time he’d got his shot in, Oriol Romeu threw himself at it and managed to block. When Vardy quickly sent a second attempt in, there was Romeu again to get in the way although there was a suspicion of handball.
If there’s one side you can’t afford to do that against it’s Leicester. But Saints didn’t learn quickly enough and shortly before the break Romeu stumbled and allowed Islam Slimani in.
This time it was Jose Fonte to the rescue, though the Leicester man seemed to have claims that he was barged to the floor unfairly in the process.
In fairness, though, the visitors could easily have been in front well before all that if Austin had shown his recent ruthless streak in front of goal.
In the 14th minute he was unlucky when he beat Schmeichel with a shot from a tight angle only to see it strike the inside of the post and bounce away to safety.
Nathan Redmond should also have done better with just over an hour gone when he wriggled into a great position only to hit a tame low shot which a relieved Schmeichel dealt with comfortably.