Bournemouth Away
All change again in the Southampton team chosen to face Bournemouth in the near-derby, with the headline tweaks being a return for Yoshida and a place for Mané alongside Austin and Long. The home team don’t have the depth of squad for such niceties, but they served up what was always expected of them with a committed performance that overwhelmed an out of sorts Saints. Yoshida’s evening lasted less than 35 minutes before he was substituted by Davis in reaction to Bournemouth’s opener, but this was not as a result of one of those Yoshie howlers; instead Fonte was embarrassed by King’s persistence near the corner flag and the defender was eventually punished by a free kick that Ritchie whipped in. I admit it didn’t look too good for Forster on the box, but I stand by my matchday observation that the keeper actually did well to keep Ritchie out, until Cook’s follow up bounced high into an unguarded corner of the net. Restoring Bertrand to a conventional full-back role didn’t help Saints much and the only players who seemed to be having any effect were Pellè and Tadić, introduced in the 60th and 70th minutes for the injured Austin and Long respectively. Saints didn’t ever threaten to get anything out of the game, but there’s always hope, a thought that was almost completely extinguished by a second Cherries goal towards the end. Again it was from a set piece (the last three goals conceded by Saints have been from this route), a free kick converted by Afobe who managed to get away from Van Dijk.
LSSC Man of the Match: James Ward-Prowse, but I was struggling with this one!I
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