Saints are on march after Hughes’ lift
IT SAYS everything about the modern managerial madness t hat Mark Hughes may become the first boss to preside over one Premier League side’s exit from the FA Cup at the hands of League Two opposition and end up winning it with another team in the same season.
The new Southampton manager had certainly put Stoke City’s exit at Coventry well behind him by last night, though. The paltry twomonth contract he has signed doesn’t delight this proud individual, who does not consider himself a firefighter.
The way his charges were initially dominated by Wigan encapsulated what happens to a group of players when self-belief has drained away. But t he t r ansformation was palpable after Hughes’s half-time conversation with them.
Southampton began occupying Wigan territory and, as the sun set on the League One side’s extraordinary Cup run, we saw the swagger flooding back.
There was substitute Cedric Soares, running 102 yards in the 91st minute to score his first goal for the club, nearly three years after joining them. And there was Nathan Redmond, a Hughes substitute, causing Wigan untold trouble with his pace.
The recent diminution of Redmond says everything about Southampton’s punctured spirit. But his performance would have given the watching West Ham manager David Moyes cause for worry as he drove away from here last night.
The clash of Hughes’s and Moyes’s teams in east London a week on Saturday has now assumed monumental importance in the relegation dogfight.
It could have been a very different story had Wigan only seized their first-half chances. There was the full gamut of northern hospitality for their visitors — bitter cold, a swirling easterly wind, and a bumpy, litterstrewn pitch.
The breakthrough came by subtle process of cause and effect.
Byrne was spooked into handing Manolo Gabbiadini a gilt- edged chance with a pass directly to the unmarked striker in the Wigan box. And though goalkeeper Christian Walton was quickly out to douse that fire, and palmed away Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s bullet header, the home side were clearly rattled.
Their defence hesitated fatally when Hojbjerg met Tadic’s corner just beyond the hour.
The Dane’s connection was poor but the ball disappeared through a crowded area into the net. It was his first goal for Southampton, too. The quality of Cedric’s own angular finish beyond Walton, at the death, reflected the nascent belief.