ON THIS DAY 2020: Southampton 0 – 1 Newcastle United – Saint-Maximin strikes sinks Saints at St. Mary’s
by GarethAKitchener
ON THIS DAY 2020: Southampton 0 – 1 Newcastle United – Saint-Maximin strikes sinks Saints at St. Mary’s
by GarethAKitchener
3 Comments
On the right day he was incredible. Silky smooth, rapid and able to control the ball like a wizard.
Unfortunately the right day was about 3 or 4 times a year.
This was our last away game before lockdown.
I live down south and I was working at a job where my boss was a Southampton season ticket holder, he gave me his tickets for this game, I’ve been to St Mary’s loads in both home and away ends. I was sat in with the home fans, in the supposed family section, when their right back made the error for Maxi to run in and score, a fella several rows back just started shouting racial slurs towards their own right back.
He was ejected from the stadium and ever since then I’ve had an issue with Southampton fans in general.
7/10 game for me, all things considered.
ON THIS DAY 2020:
United travelled to St Mary’s in poor form, in the month prior, they had scored zero goals, conceded five, and earned one point.
The game changed in the first half, when Djenepo’s yellow was upgraded to a red after a VAR check for a dangerous stamp.
Despite Newcastle having an extra man, they struggled to dominate Southampton initially. Saints keeper McCarthy then pulled out an astonishing close range triple save, parrying the shots of Gayle and Almirón.
Another VAR check saw a handball given in the box and a penalty awarded. MOTM McCarthy again pulled off a fantastic save from Matt Ritchie and it looked like Newcastle were never going to find their breakthrough.
In the closing stages, Saints defender Valery held on to the ball for too long, and rapid pressure from Saint-Maximin saw him snatch the ball and coolly slot it in the bottom corner, before somersaulting in front of the away supporters like the Gucci Geordie he is.
United held on to the win in what would be the last game for months as the Covid pandemic began.