LOUD N PROWD
SAINTS ROAR BACK TO KEEP RALPH IN HIS JOB
JAMES WARD-PROWSE put Quique Sanchez Flores a nose ahead of Ralph Hasenhuttl in the 5.30 Sack Race Stakes at St Mary’s.
The Saints midfielder struck a magnificent free-kick to leave Watford’s manager Flores close to the edge as the Spaniard’s terrible second stint at the Hornets continued.
In contrast, Hasenhuttl breathed a huge sigh of relief as first Danny Ings and then Wardprowse turned this game around with two goals inside five minutes.
The win – Southampton’s first since mid-september – takes Saints to within two points of safety, but leaves Watford rock-bottom.
Like two starving men stranded together in a lifeboat, a long way from safety and with only each other to eat, both clubs’ managers could have been forgiven for feeling edgy.
Hasenhuttl had got used to starvation rations with no wins in his last seven matches, while his opposite number at Watford had been on some crazy crashcourse diet of just one victory in 84 days.
You didn’t need a dodgy Twitter fact-checking account to determine why Watford and Southampton are struggling at the wrong end of the table.
No club in the Premier
League had conceded more than the Saints’ 31 goals, while the Hornets carried the least powerful sting in the division, with just eight goals scored.
The anxieties were glaringly obvious after little more than a minute when Southampton skipper Pierre-emile Hojbjerg gave the ball straight to Ismaila Sarr in an advanced area.
Sarr couldn’t believe his luck – or his carelessness – as he thumped the ball straight at Alex Mccarthy.
A hopeful long ball by Etienne Capoue should have been cut out by Saints’ Jack Stephens, but the defender made a hash of it and was muscled away by Sarr, who steadied himself and fired past Mccarthy to give Watford a 24th-minute lead.
Five minutes later, Sarr almost had a second when he was left alone at the far post to volley a free-kick – but Mccarthy deflected the ball over with his boot.
Hasenhuttl sent on Sofiane Boufal and Shane Long early in the second half and was at least rewarded with some extra grit and urgency.
Ben Foster denied Long with a brilliant tip onto the bar.
Long then had another chance, but his half-struck shot was cleared off the line before
Ings pounced with time running out in the 78th minute.
Moussa Djenepo’s darting run took him to the line and when he poked the ball across, Ings reacted quickest to smash the ball home from no more than a yard out.
Suddenly, St Mary’s was alive and within five minutes Southampton had turned things around.
A free-kick on the corner of the box gave Ward-prowse the chance to curl a brilliant shot into the near corner for his seventh goal of the season.
Foster got a hand to it, but could not keep it out.
It was a deserved turnaround for Saints, who showed the greater determination and energy from the hour mark – with Watford wrongly assuming they were good enough to defend their lead.