Saints’ drought has Hughes praying for goal

THE bleeding has stopped for Southampton but the clock ticks on. It is now 385 minutes since they last scored in the league and that is at least one longer than it should be.

How Manolo Gabbiadini missed in the fourth of five minutes of stoppage time is a mystery. A real headscratcher and gut punch rolled into one blown chance. A decent height, no great marking, central and close to goal. And then the header. And then the collective groan. And then the grimace on the face of a manager who has seen too much of this recently.

It has become the painful theme of Mark Hughes’s season — his side are repeatedly failing to finish what they start.

Consider one statistic ahead of this match which showed that only Manchester City and Chelsea had created more chances than Southampton and yet only Cardiff City had a worse ratio of goals to shots. That’s the prime reason why they sit a point above the bottom three.

Of course, a first point in four league games is not to be sniffed at, but single points will only get a manager so far when it is being whispered that the club are considering alternatives.

‘I was pleased with the performance,’ Hughes said. ‘It was about making a bit of a statement — we were disappointing against Chelsea and we came back and showed what we are about.

‘Bournemouth have been flying and it is a difficult place to come but we were able to really manage the game well.’

His counterpart, Eddie Howe said: ‘We didn’t get going. It is frustrating because we know we can play better than that.’