2 April 2025
Southampton 1-1 Crystal Palace
Things are starting to look desperate for Southampton now. As they welcomed Crystal Palace to St Mary’s, they knew defeat coupled with a Wolves win at the weekend would mean they were down. Not even ‘Sammy Saint’ truly believed they could pull off the heroics to go on such a run that they can get themselves out of the bottom three.
The ground was surprisingly empty for a Premier League game. It seemed as though many Saints’ fans had already given up on their team. It seemed to be a reoccurring pain cycle they were going through week in, week out. This could further condemn Southampton back to the Championship as newly-promoted sides need that twelfth man more than anyone.
Crystal Palace created the first chance of the game as Mateta turned his man well near the halfway line. He ran through on goal and unleashed a ferocious shot that had Ramsdale beaten. It thundered off the underside of the bar and came back out into play. It was some effort from The Eagles’ striker and would have been a definite ‘goal of the month’ contender.
Southampton finally started to give their fans something to be excited about when Walker-Peters ran at the Palace defence. The visitors were struggling to clear their lines as Ugochukwu laid it off into the path of Fernandes, whose shot was deflected over the crossbar. That is some of the positivity they need to be showing more of in the final third.
Moments later, Fernandes turned provider. He clipped a brilliant cross into the box, picking out Onuachu. His towering header squirmed through the attempted save from Henderson and went into the bottom corner of the goal. St Mary’s erupted as it nestled in the back of the net. Well, as much as it could with the stadium half-empty.
Eze started to get involved in the game more and was stretching the Southampton defence. He played out wide to Clyne, who drilled a low pass into the path of Mateta. The French striker took one touch to control it, before spinning and shooting, all in one movement. It took a brilliant save from Ramsdale, low down to his left, to make a one-handed reaction save.
The Saints had a massive chance to double their lead when a wild pass from Guehi missed its intended target. The ball broke to Onuachu in the box, who looked to get a first-time shot away. He completely mishit it as he dragged it wide of the target. You can ill-afford to miss such chances at this level and nine times out of ten will be punished for it.
Both sides went in at the break knowing they had plenty of work to do. After the break, they seemed to cancel each other out for a period of time. This made the game a dreadful watch. Eventually, Palace managed to create something as Sarr went on a run at goal. Just at the right time he laid it off to Eze, with most expecting to see the net bulge, but he dragged his shot well wide of the target.
As time was running out, the hosts almost became the architects of their own downfall. A poor pass back to the keeper sold him short and Nketiah was able to get there first. Ramsdale did well to make himself big and blocked the effort, which ricocheted off the Palace forward and went wide of the goal. So close to an equaliser for The Eagles.
There were boos from the home fans once the fourth official announced there would be eight added minutes. They could not fathom what had happened in the game to warrant it. To make matters worse, in the 92nd minute Lerma swung a dangerous cross in and Franca’s glancing header beat Ramsdale as it squirmed into the bottom corner.
Southampton had victory taken away from them deep into added time. The home fans could not believe their luck, knowing this would push them closer to the Premier League trapdoor. However, there were still six minutes left and they needed to throw caution to the wind to see if they could grab a winner. They had led for the majority of this game.
It was in fact the visitors who came the closest to grabbing a winner. As Eze tried to work his magic down the wing, the ball was played into Nketiah wide in the box. He turned and shot, with Ramsdale beaten, only to see his effort go inches over the crossbar. So close to grabbing a Palace win in dramatic style at St Mary’s.
The points were shared, which still means that The Saints can be relegated this weekend if Wolves beat Ipswich Town at Portman Road. It will be a strange situation having to cheer on their rivals in the bottom three to keep their feint hopes of survival alive. That said, Southampton have shown nothing that suggests they could do the unthinkable.
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