Adam Armstrong scored his eighth goal of the season as Southampton cruised to a 3-1 league win and doomed Wayne Rooney to a third successive defeat as Birmingham manager.
Armstrong now has 8 career goals against the Blues, more than the striker has scored against any other team as he settled the game with a good finish. He had set up Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ first game before Carlos Alcaraz stepped in. the first goals for any of the players of the season. Jay Stansfield got one for the visitors, but he couldn’t end Rooney’s winless streak.
Southampton had monopolised the early stages without making transparency until Harwood-Bellis headed in the first game of the 9th minute. Stuart and Adam d’Armstrong carried out a brief corner regimen before the latter allowed the Manchester City loanee to score his third professional goal, and first since last September.
The visitors regrouped, but Oliver Burke’s shot into the back of the net (his first-half shot) brought the home side back to life. Kamaldeen Sulemana and Stuart Armstrong skilfully connected down the left flank before the Ghanaian slid in front of goal for Alcaraz to push him away.
Rooney had been booed following Wednesday’s 2-0 home defeat to Hull, and Saints fans deserved their credit with a series of ‘morning dismissals’ aimed at the great Manchester United. But instead of rubbing more salt in the wound of his Bad Start, Birmingham fans subsidized their boss with shouts of “Rooney, Rooney” and “Wayne Rooney’s Blue Army. “They deserved to have been rewarded with a penalty, but goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu took it by crushing Burke in the box.
The Saints then went into the break with a more than two-goal lead when Harwood-Bellis’ weak header from a corner went wide and Adam Armstrong cut off a one-on-one with John Ruddy still wide of the goal.
After the break, Stuart Armstrong dutifully finished off a well-crafted move and Adam Armstrong’s header went wide. But the hosts failed and Birmingham capitalized. Stansfield took advantage of Lukas Jutkiewicz’s downfall, worked his way past Kyle Walker-Peters and worked his way into the majority. Sensible corner: All within 52 seconds of being brought to the bench in the 57th minute.
It was Stansfield’s fourth goal of the season and extended Southampton’s wait for a clean sheet at home to 28 games. But the Saints held the ball well and clinched the result in the 86th minute, when Adam Armstrong swooped in and turned over Sam Edozie’s header.
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After the Newsletter
Scott Hogan scored one on the roof of the net in the shortest amount of time, but that couldn’t stop the Saints from going on a six-game unbeaten streak to solidify their position in the top six.