Saints climb to seventh with win over Bournemouth

Southampton took bragging rights in the south-coast derby with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium.

The hosts took an early lead through a Nathan Ake header but were pegged back soon after by a Ryan Bertrand strike.

Two second half goals from Jay Rodgriguez sealed the win for the Saints as they climbed from ninth to seventh in the league table.

The south-coast derby was just five minutes hold before the back of the net was ruffled for the first time. A Jack Wilshere cross from just outside the area found Ake lurking at the corner of the left of the six-yard box to ghost in and stoop to head home to the bottom-left corner past the diving Fraser Forster in nets.

Bournemouth were pouring forward early doors and could have had a second when Joshua King worked his way into space in the area and unleashed a power driver at goal with Forster managing to block with a leg from close range.

But from their very first attack on the Bournemouth goal the Saints drew level. Bertrand cut in off the left wing, beat two defenders, and fired across the face of goal, past Artuc Boruc in nets, and into the bottom-right corner to level the game.

Following that pulsating opening the game settled as both sides began to look for more pattern in their approach play. The Saints carved an opening with Bertrand getting down the left wing once more and pulling back to the centre from the byline with the ball reaching Nathan Redmond in the box only to mistime his strike of the ball and see the effort skew off his foot and spin across the pitch rather than towards the target.

The home side were also making some openings with balls in from wide out. Marc Pugh escaped attention down the left before crossing to Callum Wilson in the box, who under little pressure from the defence, could have done better but only succeeded in flicking his header into the waiting arms of Forster.

Just like the first period, the second half began with a bang. Steven Davis, on for Harrison Reed at the break, was the creator-in-chief. The Northern Ireland international combined with Sofiane Boufal at the top of the box, before rounding keeper Boruc and crossing to the centre where Rodriguez was there to turn home from point-blank range as the Saints took the lead for the first time in the tie.

The fluidity that defined Bournemouth in the early exchanges of the game had deserted them as the game ticked past the hour mark, with a lack of cohesion their defining characteristic at that juncture, epitomised by Wilson crossing from the right to the six-yard area only to find none of his team-mates pushing into the box to get on the end of it as the ball flashed across the face of goal untouched.

As the game drew on the Saints sat deep, putting their full compliment behind the ball and inviting Bournemouth onto them, confident that they had enough to repel them and hit on the counter; one of those counters saw the ball fall to Redmond outside the area on the left of the field to fire a driving shot on goal from distance, which looped and then dipped just over the bar in what would have surely been a killer blow.

However, the strategy was working and the killer blow did eventually come with five minutes remaining. Redmond barged and bundled his way to the top of the box, where he lost the ball and it deflected into the path of Rodriguez to turn, volley, and smash home from distance with a stunning strike that bagged the points.

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