Despite getting themselves out of relegation zone for the first time in several months, Southampton will see this as a defeat after they conceded in the 96th minute.
Where did that time come from? This is a question Saints fans will be asking all evening after the four minutes of added time turned to six, allowing the Toffees’ Tom Davies to score and break Southampton hearts in the dying embers.
The Saints had played well for the duration of the game, eventually breaking the deadlock early in the second half when Nathan Redmond scored his first of the campaign to set the Saints on their way.
It was a tense affair that saw seven players go into the referees book from both sides collectively, with Maya Yoshida getting sent off for two bookable offences when Everton were piling on the pressure late in the game.
Whilst the result will be a tough one to take after conceding so late, the Saints will need to remember that the positive result does see them climb out of the bottom three – they are level on points with Swansea who lost in the day’s earlier kick-off. Victory against the Swans in mid-week would see them go three points clear of the drop, with a far superior goal difference than their rivals.
Next: Saints must keep hold of Maya Yoshida
As with many of their recent games, Southampton understandably started the match in a nervy fashion, with Sam Allardyce naturally setting up to frustrate, the Saints didn’t enjoy a huge amount of goal-mouth action.
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Charlie Austin had the Saints’ best early chance but the half was dominated through both Bertrand and Lemina and looking like they had picked up slight knocks. Eventually the latter was brought off, with Redmond his replacement.
The English winger totally turned the game on it’s head and put in a Man of the Match performance in the second half, scoring his first of the campaign after Cedric played a wonderful cross into him off a nice ball from Dusan Tadic. Redmond’s finish was a composed header at the back post – the first of his career.
Following Oumar Niasse’s substitution Everton were the much brighter going forward and were the dominant side for the rest of the match, with the climax seemingly coming after Wesley Hoedt gave Leighton Baines the perfect free-kick opportunity at the death, only for McCarthy to produce a superb save.
With the four minutes of injury time already gone, Everton were awarded a suspect free-kick and following a poor clearance from Bertrand, Tom Davies was picked out on the edge of the area and his deflected effort couldn’t be stopped by McCarthy with 96 minutes on the clock.
The Saints now sit in 17th with two games to play – the next of which is against 18th-placed Swansea this Tuesday evening.