Following yesterday’s clash between Southampton and Crystal Palace, here are the instant reactions from both managers.
Southampton hosted Crystal Palace at St Mary’s Stadium on Tuesday January 2, with the visitors taking a two one victory on the night.
Southampton opened the scoring 17 minutes into the game through Republic of Ireland international Shane Long, but a strong second half comeback from Roy Hodgson’s side saw them draw level with just over 20 minutes remaining in the match via James McArthur and Luka Milivojevic scored what turned out to be the winner with ten minutes remaining.
Southampton are now nine games without victory and slip to 17th place in the Premier League table, but Palace’s resurgence now sees them with one defeat in the last eleven matches and they rise to 14th place.
Teams:
Southampton:
McCarthy, Pied, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Hojbjerg (Gabbiadini 75), Ward-Prowse (Davis 70), Tadic (Redmond 79), Boufal, Long.
Substitutes:
Lemina, Targett, Bednarek, Forster.
Crystal Palace:
Hennessey, Fosu-Mensah, Kelly, Tomkins, Schlupp (Sako 64), McArthur, Milivojevic, Townsend, Cabaye (van Aanholt 45), Zaha, Benteke.
Substitutes:
Speroni, Lee Chung-yong, Souare, Delaney, Riedewald.
Speaking to the BBC’s cameras a short time after match day referee Stuart Attwell blew the final whistle, Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino explained.
‘It is a difficult game for us to digest because in the first half it was completely different and we were talking about how to score the second goal, but we gave them the possibility to score a couple of goals because we played backwards and sometimes we played too deep. My players’ confidence will be down but that is normal. We must learn how to play this type of game, especially when the conditions are like that.’
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson in his comparative interview explained.
‘The players deserve enormous credit to get four points from the program that we’ve had, with such short recovery time. I thought in the first half the pitch was quite heavy and didn’t suit the type of football we like to play, but we certainly got over that in second half. We knew it would be tough for our midfield, Cabaye we know is a magnificent player but we knew it’d be difficult for him to get 90 minutes so at half-time we brought him off and hoped Patrick and Wilfried would lead to more domination in their half. Luckily the changes worked for us and I was happy with how it worked out in the end.’
