Ronald Koeman came away from St Mary’s smiling, as Southampton recorded their second victory in a week, with a comfortable 3-0 home win over West Brom.
James Ward-Prowse opened the scoring with a magnificent free kick from the left-hand side in the fifth minute before doubling his tally for the game, as well as his career with a penalty in the 35th minute when Matt Targett was bundled over in the area. Dusan Tadic scored in the 72nd minute after a defence-opening pass from the ever-reliable Steven Davis to seal the points for the Saints and send the fans home happy.
The Dutch coach was delighted with his side’s return to the top half of the table,
“I’m very pleased.”
“I’m very pleased about the way we played today. I think it was a comfortable win.”
He also spoke of his delight for James Ward-Prowse, who scored his first ever professional brace.
“It’s not easy to score three goals against West Brom – we know, we have that experience. It’s difficult, but ok if you score so fast in the game, with a fantastic free-kick of Prowsey, that makes it more easy.”
Confidence is high in the Saints camp after two respectable home wins. In a week, Saints have scored five and conceded none, meaning Southampton can look up the table now, rather than down.
“We had a difficult week after the disappointment in the FA Cup against Crystal Palace, but I think the important thing was that we were focused last Wednesday and also today, because that makes the difference.
“Six points out of two home games and two clean sheets is very positive.”Sometimes you have a difficult period and you have to accept that. You have to keep working, because that’s the only key to come back to good results and that’s good and that’s positive, and we like to go on.”
With the arrival of Charlie Austin, the only way is up for Saints.
