Three takeaways from Southampton’s loss to Stoke City
By Chris Hughes
Yesterday the Saints’ 2016/17 season came to an end with a 1-0 loss to Stoke City, as Claude Puel’s team failed to score once again.
Southampton ended their season with their worst goal-scoring record at St. Mary’s in years, as they failed to find the net in over seven hours on their own turf for the first time since 1937.
Peter Crouch scored the only goal of the game on the hour mark, rising at the far post to score a well-timed header off of a Geoff Cameron cross. It made Crouch the first player to score 50 Premier League headers.
The result means the Saints still finish eighth but it’s been far from a perfect end to the season, with one win since before Easter and that came against an already-relegated Middlesbrough.
Despite having over 60 percent of the ball yesterday the Saints were relatively ineffective on the attack, with Stoke enjoying arguably the better goal-mouth action with Bame Miram Diouf also having great chances to get Stoke in front.
Saints Marching now takes a look at three takeaways that can be drawn from Southampton’s final game of the season.