The Carabao Cup fourth round fixture against Stoke City was a good opportunity for the Saints to find a good momentum ahead of two must-win matches against Everton and Wolves. While some lineup changes were expected for this Cup fixture, Martin started a lot of the Premier League first-team players in the starting lineup.
Adam Armstrong returned to the attack alongside Ryan Fraser, who recently took a red-card against Leicester City in the Premier League. Martin made a good decision to drop Flynn Downes from this game and Lesley Ugochukwu was given his first start in the first-team after an underwhelming first half display against Bournemouth last month.
Southampton score last-minute winner after giving away 2-0 lead against Stoke City
Yukinari Sugawara returned to full match fitness and started the game alongside regular starters Aaron Ramsdale, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Jan Bednarek. The only change in the defence was at the left-back position where James Bree was given the starting role after an impressive substitute cameo against Manchester City.
Southampton started the match on a high note and quickly took the 1-0 lead inside twenty minutes as Taylor Harwood-Bellis scored a header from the corner. The 22-year-old defender has been rock-solid for Southampton in the defence, and has already scored his third goal across all competitions this season after a great finish from Mateus Fernandes's brilliant pass.
Fifteen minutes later, Sugawara was pulled inside the box and Southampton were rewarded a penalty to double their lead. Adam Armstrong stepped up to take the penalty and scored his first Southampton goal in the ongoing season with a great spot-kick attempt.
The Saints were comfortably leading 2-0 before the end of the first half, but Stoke City defender Ashley Phillips scored a goal by taking advantage of Southampton's lacklustre defending. The Saints conceded a similar goal against Bournemouth from a set-piece and again left Phillips unmarked inside the box, who found the back of the net to bring the score to 2-1 before half-time.
In the second half, the visitors advanced further inside the Southampton half and ten minutes later, scored the 2-2 equalising goal as well. Lesley Ugochukwu made a heavy touch on Taylor Harwood-Bellis's pass and gave away the ball-possession in his own half, which led Stoke City to create a counter-attack chance and Tom Cannon made a good finish to score the second goal.
A few minutes later, Stoke City were very close to completing their comeback but Yukinari Sugawara made a heroic goal-line clearance to deny the visitors from taking a 3-2 lead. Martin brought in experienced midfielder Adam Lallana to provide more composure in the Southampton midfield, and the Saints started to create some good goalscoring opportunities in order to take a win.
In the last-minute of the match, Kamaldeen Sulemana played a quick pass with Maxwel Cornet and laid a good pass for James Bree, who scored another long-range goal to secure the 3-2 Carabao Cup fourth round win for the Saints. In the second round of the Carabao Cup against Cardiff City last month, Bree scored a similar goal from outside the box to give Southampton a 4-3 lead in the last-minute of the match, which they later won 5-3.
Despite some unconvincing defending in the beginning of the second half, Russell Martin's side managed to advance to the fifth round of the Carabao Cup and will now prepare for their upcoming home match against Everton in the Premier League.