SAINTS ARE RED-HOT
Man-of-match Nathan gives boss Hasenhuttl shot at Wembley glory
NATHAN REDMOND emerged from the wilderness to inspire Southampton’s stroll into the FA Cup semi-finals.
Back in 2017, the Saints hitman won his only England cap to date, so good was his form at St Mary’s.
Since then, though, Redmond has slowly drifted towards obscurity and at times even struggles to get into Ralph Hasenhuttl’s starting line-up.
But yesterday he reminded everyone of his undoubted class as he made the opener before striking a delightful double to crush Championship Bournemouth’s Wembley dreams.
BT Sport commentator Glenn Hoddle likened Redmond’s first effort – a wonderful run and curling finish – to Michael Owen’s World Cup ’98 cracker against Argentina.
Hoddle should know. He was Three Lions manager that night in France.
Saints chief Hasenhuttl later promised to check it out on YouTube as he has never seen it.
But he was understandably thrilled with this second victory in eight outings for his Premier League strugglers.
The Austrian said: “I don’t know the goal Glenn is talking about, so I must have a look at it.
“What we’ve seen from Reddy today is what we need from him more.
“He’s a player not always 100 per cent about his qualities. This is the first step back for him.
“We said in January we wanted to focus on the Cup – so now we have a highlight to look forward to later in the season.
“There’s a long way to go, but maybe it’s coming together for us in this competition.”
The Saints have been toiling in the Premier League, but the Cup continues to offer them a chance to revive a season that once promised so much prior to a post-Christmas slump.
They were missing crocked England hitman Danny Ings for this trip, but that was nothing compared to the lengthy injury list of Jonathan Woodgate’s side.
The Cherries were without David Brooks, Lewis Cook and Junior Stanislas as they attempted to reach the last four for the first time in their history.
Of course, they really want to be at Wembley in the Championship play-offs, but manager Woodgate was still bitterly disappointed at their exit. He moaned: “We’re gutted we’ve gone out. It would have been great to make the semis, but the real objective of the season is to get promotion.”
The Saints made the better start – and it seemed to be a perfect one when home defender Cameron CarterVickers turned Kyle WalkerPeters’ cross into his own net.
However, the on-loan Spurs player’s misery immediately turned to relief, courtesy of VAR ruling the
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Now we have a highlight to look forward to later in the season... maybe it’s coming together for us in this competition
Saints ace was offside as he latched on to Jan Bednarek’s fine pass.
It was only after Saints skipper Ryan Bertrand slammed wide from the edge of the area that Bournemouth began to find their stride.
And it was another of their loanees, Atletico youngster Rodrigo Riquelme, whose first-time effort whistled past Fraser Forster’s post.
Before they had time to build on that, though, the Cherries were caught on the counter with just eight minutes of the half left.
Walker-Peters found Redmond, who spun and raced towards the penalty area before slipping in Moussa Djenepo (right). From there quality took over as the Saints playmaker, having lost his stumbling marker, calmly fired past helpless Asmir Begovic.
And it was much the same for the Cherries keeper a minute into first-half injury time when Redmond doubled the advantage with his moment of magic.
He went one way, then the other, leaving several defenders in his wake before sizing up his options and rifling his shot into the opposite top corner
“That’s Owen-esque,” exclaimed the watching Hoddle. Had Jack Wilshere found the net with a vicious
20-yard strike straight after the break, the Cherries might have fought back.
But after striker Che Adams’ effort for Saints had been ruled out by VAR in the 55th minute, Redmond put the tie beyond any doubt with another conclusive, lethal finish.