News summary
Tonda Eckert implied the call on Taylor Harwood-Bellis was taken out of his hands, ahead of dropping his best defender for the Stoke City match on Saturday. "These things always go a level higher up at one point. My job is to train the players," Eckert said afterwards.
Does he expect the defender to leave? Eckert shrugged.
Taylor remains a Southampton player, he said, and nothing else in his answers suggested he knows much more than that.
"All the boys were arguing in the box, and they pointed at me," Ryan Manning said of the added-time penalty he had not planned on taking. He then found the bottom corner for his first of the season.
Mark Robins saw the Saints' second goal coming when Divin Mubama shifted onto his left foot in the 89th minute. Robins called that Mubama's favourite shot. Robins knows the player well after having him on loan at the Potters last season from Manchester City, where the 21-year-old scored five goals.
Robins also wants the second yellow shown to Svante Ingelsson looked at again.
Three points lifted Saints to minus one, and a win against Millwall next Saturday could lift Southampton out of the relegation zone after only three matches.
Not everyone came out of the win well. Kuryu Matsuki looked uneasy in central midfield, where Cameron Bragg has support to come in beside Flynn Downes.
Dragan Solak watched from the stands. Eckert said that he hadn't looked over his shoulder during the 90 minutes, but that the owner's presence meant everything.
Matchday: West Ham on Tuesday
Tuesday brings West Ham United to St Mary's in the second round of the Carabao Cup. Kick-off is 7.45pm.
Saints got there by beating Colchester United, while West Ham put three past Portsmouth. Because both clubs are so focused on promotion, the tie offers little more than rotation minutes.
West Ham dropped out of the Premier League last season, so Tuesday doubles as an early look at a rival in the same race.
Millwall visit on Saturday afternoon. Win both and a season that opened with a deduction and a defeat at Watford starts to look like a different one.
Transfer news
Villa returned on Sunday night with £24m, £20m guaranteed. Saints said no again.
Florian Plettenberg reported the rejection, plus a feeling that the two clubs are edging closer to an agreement.
Southampton will not go below £25m, and with two years left on the contract they do not have to. Benfica were knocked back at a similar level this month and have looked elsewhere since.
Villa are not only waiting on Saints. The Athletic named Club Brugge's Joel Ordonez on Sunday morning as another option, while noting that Unai Emery's club is still short of Southampton's price.
Alan Nixon had Preston North End chasing an Archer loan on Sunday as Sheffield United wanted too much for Tom Cannon.
Archer has yet to leave the bench in either league game, and a loan would hand him minutes he cannot get at St Mary's. Nobody questions how hard he works, but the finishing has never come with it.
A centre-back could arrive whatever Harwood-Bellis decides. Roggerio Nyakossi of OH Leuven has been floated as an option, and Chelsea and Liverpool were watching the same 22-year-old in January.
Saints Marching opinion
Villa have moved to £24m as a package. Southampton start at £25m, though gaps that small rarely survive the last week of a window.
Losing Harwood-Bellis would cost the team more than the fee suggests, because nobody else at the club turns defence into an attack the way he does. Jack Stephens and Nathan Wood coped on Saturday, but neither looked comfortable playing the ball out of defence, either into midfield or bypassing it altogether, as only Harwood-Bellis can.
Eckert kept the blame off the player and put the call on himself. A club with four points to claw back cannot afford a row with its best defender, especially when the difference between the offer and the asking price is thinner than an After Eight mint.
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