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Southampton At Wolverhampton Wanderers The FA Cup Verdict

Saints put in a great performance at Molyneux to not only end their losing streak, but earn a place in the quarter finals of the FA Cup and a trip across the New Forest to Bournemouth.

Ralph Hasenhuttl put out pretty much the side that everyone expected him to, with the only real surprise being Stuart Armstrong in the starting line up and Ce Adams dropping to the bench, meaning that Nathan Redmond played alongside Danny Ings up front.

In hindsight Saints played it just right, they rarely let the home side get on top or gave them a sight of goal and going forward we looked sharp, although our finishing was letting us down a little.

We dominated possession and had 18 attempts on goal compared to Wolves 5 and whilst we had almost half of those on target with 8, the home side only registered a single effort that produced a great save from Fraser Forster.

The winning goal as such came on 49 minutes a great ball from Stuart Armstrong played Ings through and he saw his shot hit the keeper, but then his luck changed the ball rebounded off him and into the net the linesman gave offside, but Var showed Ings to be onside.

It could be said that Wolves put out a weakened side, but by the 63rd minute they had brought on 3 of their benched players and with 20 minutes to go they added a fourth.

But it was too little too late as Saints stuck to their task and allowed them that solitary strike on target.

Truth is we looked like the old Saints again, the usual suspects put in their usual solid performances and the stand ins and newby did the job.

In goal Fraser Forster looked the part, he made a decent save and looked solid throughout, coming off his line on several occasions to clear dangerous situation, in truth he deserves to keep his place for the League game on Sunday.

In front of him Mohammed Salisu looked the part, although understandably he had to find the pace of the game, however as it went on he grew into it and seemed to read the game well and made several good blocks and interceptions, late on he tired a little and got a little sloppy, but that could be excused due to this being his first game since July.

Moussa Djenepo had a decent game on the left wing and up front Nathan Redmond was having no luck with his attempts on goal, but he put in a good display and his work rate made up for his lac of finishing.

For the last 10 minutes you thought that Wolves might get back into it, but Saints didn't let them, they dug in and won the ball, drew fouls and held it.

Special mention for Nathan Tella a surprise choice as a late sub, but he harassed the keeper into an error kept his cool and laid the ball back for Armstrong, who had plenty to do, but took his chance well to make it 2-0 as the clock hit 90.

Saints had a penalty decision overruled by VAR but they didn't care they preferred the free kick in the corner as they could run down the clock.

Hopefully this win will restore morale and confidence, especially for Danny Ings who couldn't buy a goal for the past month, he needed one to just go in and tonight it did.

The quarter final draw pits us against Bournemouth and gives us a great chance at making the semi finals, we should not count our chickens, but we start as favourites and with players returning from injury it is a great opportunity to get to Wembley.

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