A SMASH-AND-GRAB raid late in the first half helped Southampton to come from behind and secure a 3-2 win over Premier League relegation rivals West Brom at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
The Baggies had led through Ahmed Hegazi’s early header, but Mario Lemina equalised with a spectacular first goal in Southampton colours, and Jack Stephens continued his rich vein of scoring form by nodding home, as the visitors struck twice in the space of three minutes shortly before the break.
James Ward-Prowse appeared to have afforded the visitors a degree of comfort when he steered home a clever free-kick in the 55th minute.
And although Salomon Rondon pulled one back in the 72nd minute, the hosts proved unable to force an equaliser in the time remaining, the result leaving West Brom at risk of being cut adrift in 20th place.
Brighton and Hove Albion eased their relegation fears as they completed a league double over West Ham with a 3-1 win at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.
Chris Hughton’s side recorded their first league win of 2018 thanks to stunning second-half strikes from Jose Izquierdo and Pascal Gross, blowing open the 10,000th Premier League game between two sides looking over their shoulders in the battle to avoid the drop.
Glenn Murray had converted a one-on-one opportunity to put the hosts ahead in the eighth minute, only for Javier Hernandez to grab an equaliser and get West Ham on level terms before the half-hour mark.
Swansea City, meanwhile, extended their unbeaten run to seven games after Federico Fernandez’s equaliser earned them a 1-1 draw against Leicester City.
Jamie Vardy gave Leicester a first-half lead and Claude Puel’s side looked set to bounce back from their defeat to Everton last time out with a win until Swansea mounted a fightback after the break.
Carlos Carvalhal has only suffered one defeat since he took the reins at Swansea and whatever he said to his players at half-time had the desired effect and they drew level through Fernandez within seven minutes of the restart.
Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth followed up their big win at Stamford Bridge in midweek with another victory.
Xherdan Shaqiri put visitors Stoke 1-0 up after just five minutes but Joshua King and Lys Mousset struck within 10 minutes of each other midway through the second half to seal the points.
Another poor decision by a ref, very harsh red card
Feel bad for supporters that’s a long trek!
Not if you live in Maigh Eo!
A small point; as you named both teams above, you gave the Dublin team their full names while just the Surnames of the Mayo team. Any reason why???
Is it possible to update from any of the other matches now since BÁC v Maigh Eo has been cancelled? :-)
Hey RG,
We’ll have a round-up of the results later this evening.
So disappointed
because outside pale no one has internet or can read,
As for the long trek GarCPD, welcome to the world of those who have to travel to Croker for every league semi and final and from quarter finals on. 3 or 4 trips out of the capital versus say Kerry who could have up to 10 if they get to both finals. Not having a go at u about it, just that is part of been a GAA fan! :)
Was a good game, we started poorly, the red was harsh enough though. very hard to gauge how it would have gone.
The long trek to deep West will have to be done again! :D