MATCH FACTS KELLYTO JELLY!
Eagle’s backpass flop gifts ‘outrageous’ Saints a point
SOUTHAMPTON
C PALACE
RALPH HASENHUTTL branded his Southampton side “outrageous” after they salvaged a point to maintain their festive revival.
In-form Danny Ings cashed in on a bad blunder from Palace defender Martin Kelly to earn his side a share of the spoils by cancelling out James Tomkins’ opener.
Hasenhuttl’s men are now four points clear of the relegation zone, although the Austrian boss claimed that playing three times in the space of eight days has taken its toll on his players.
Hasenhuttl ( far right), who is used to a winter break from his Bundesliga days, said: “I’m not unhappy with a point.
“In the end the chance was there to win this game and turn the tables but it was difficult against this opponent and difficult after the second game in 48 hours.
“What my team did in the last 20 minutes physically and mentally was outrageous, it was really a fantastic fight that we showed today and we deserved to come back into the game.
“You only have one day to rest. It is unbelievable!
“We did not have time to prepare and I do not know what this schedule is about. It is very difficult to prepare a team and find solutions when you have no sessions to work on. It is not very nice.
“Mentally and physically what the guys did today was really tough. It is just not necessary to play Thursdaysaturday-wednesday.
“We are very pleased with the way we’ve improved. It was absolutely important that we did it, we are a much more competitive team.
“We have found a way that works. It is not a coincidence that we now take the points continuously.”
Southampton were looking to build on their back-to-back wins away at relegation rivals Aston Villa and at Chelsea.
But the hosts had to be
■ Southampton have lost just two of their last eight Premier League games (W4 D2 L2) – after having lost six of the seven games before that. rescued by VAR from falling behind after only 15 minutes.
Wilfried Zaha was ruled offside by the tightest of margins, denying Max Meyer his first goal of the season.
Zaha beat two Saints defenders with some clever footwork on the left before squaring for Meyer to fire into the roof of the net only for VAR official Andre Mariner to rule out the goal via some dotted lines to the armpit.
Tomkins broke the deadlock in the 50th minute by heading in Luka Milivojevic’s set-piece to mark his 350th career appearance in style.
James Mcarthur was brought down by Nathan Redmond on the edge of the penalty area and Palace captain Milivojevic conned the Saints defence by shaping to shoot only to whip in a right-footed cross.
Tomkins timed his run perfectly before nodding home off the crossbar.
But Ings seized on Kelly’s misplaced back-pass to score his 12th goal of the season
■ Crystal Palace have enjoyed just one win in their last six Premier League away games (D3 L2) – after winning five of the seven games before that. and haul his side level in the 74th minute.
Palace boss Roy Hodgson said: “I thought that it was a good performance.
“The offside of course was a very close one with VAR – some people believe it maybe wasn’t offside.
“It is such small margins for these decisions and there’s no point debating or lamenting it if it hasn’t gone for you, but we can say we weren’t fortunate – we didn’t have the VAR god on our side.”