Manolo Gabbiadini’s 90th minute goal was enough to earn Southampton a crucial point against Burnley at Turf Moor to lift the Saints out of the relegation zone.
Bringing in Oriol Romeu for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was Southampton’s only change following their FA Cup victory against West Brom.
The first chance of the game fell to Saints just after 10 minutes. After Nick Pope’s dodgy clearance, Nathan Redmond gave the ball to Dusan Tadic, who attempted to score with the outside of his left foot. However, Ben Mee was there to clear it off the line after the ball seemed to have been going beyond Pope’s effort at saving it.
Burnley’s only sight at Southampton’s net came 20 mintues later, as a long ball forward from Kevin Long found Matt Lowton. His low cross into the box found Ashley Barnes, who laid it off for Aaron Lennon, but his effort was blocked and cleared by Romeu.
The Clarets were ahead after 67 minutes, though. Lennon’s cross found Johann Berg Gudmundsson at the far post and his effort was well saved by Alex McCarthy. But the ball fell to Jeff Hendrick and his header fell into the path of Barnes, who headed into the net. Some statuesque defending from Saints, it has to be said, which was disappointing considering McCarthy’s impressive initial save.
Saints had their best chance on the 75th minute mark, and it was through substitute Josh Sims. Some good work from Guido Carrillo led to Sims having the opportunity to finesse the ball into the top corner from just inside the penalty area. He was thwarted by a superb reflex finger-tip save from Pope onto the post, preventing that from happening.
With only minutes to be played, though, Southampton were ahead in rather fortunate fashion. Ashley Westwood seemed to have been blocked by referee Bobby Madley, which gave possession to Nathan Redmond, who passed the ball out wide to Sims. His cross found Carrillo, who headed it down to Manolo Gabbiadini before the Italian smashed the ball past Pope to lift the Saints out of the relegation zone.
Southampton’s next game is another six-pointer, a home game against Stoke and a win here will be a must, otherwise Saints are in real trouble.
