Southampton 2-0 Fulham: Saints out of bottom three with commanding win
By Marc Walker
Southampton climbed out of the Premier League’s relegation zone with a commanding 2-0 win over Fulham on Wednesday evening.
First-half goals from Oriol Romeu and James Ward-Prowse proved decisive in claiming the three points against a visiting Cottagers side lacking inspiration in attack and conviction at the back.
A pleasing line-up for Saints fans was named by Ralph Hasenhuttl ahead of the game with Ryan Bertrand, Maya Yoshida and Charlie Austin all coming in and Angus Gunn keeping his place in goal.
An energetic start from the home side saw Nathan Redmond fire over and Charlie Austin have a goal ruled out for a foul on Sergio Rico.
However, they did get the all important advantage in the 22nd minute.
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Ryan Bertrand’s corner was pushed out unconvincingly by Rico and Oriol Romeu was on hand to smash the ball in through the crowd of players from just outside the area.
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Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg then drove narrowly wide after a decent Saints move, but Angus Gunn then had to be alert to stop Anguissa’s close-range effort from levelling the scores.
The Saints attackers were linking up well and this led to their second goal four minutes before half-time.
Charlie Austin set-up Nathan Redmond for a testing shot across goal that was palmed out but James Ward-Prowse followed up the rebound to bundle home.
The second-half took a while to get going as Saints tried to control the game and they will have felt the need for a further goal to see out the result.
Ryan Bertrand curled a free-kick over the bar from just outside the box before Jan Bednarek had a header cleared off the line.
A nervous final 15 minutes was almost set up by Ryan Babel though.
The Dutch forward turned and shot powerfully towards the roof of the net, but the ball cannoned back off the crossbar; possibly due to the fingertips of Gunn who had to react quickly.
From that moment, it proved to be a comfortable game for Saints to see out and they climb ahead of Cardiff City by two points.