Saints denied by late Crouch strike

Saints headed north unbeaten in four away Premier League matches but were denied what would have been a hard-earned point by Crouch's late tap-in. 

A string of fine saves from Fraser Forster – recalled to the England squad earlier in the week – kept Southampton in the game in the first half either side of Mame Biram Diouf’s headed opener on 40 minutes, the big man clawing out efforts from Xherdan Shaqiri and Maxime Choupo-Moting before palming away Saido Berahino’s penalty.

Southampton - who featured Virgil van Dijk in their backline from the first whistle for the first time since January - improved after the interval and their territorial dominance was rewarded midway through the second half thanks to Yoshida’s crashing volley only for Crouch to bundle home from a yard five minutes from time.

Stoke began the brighter, with Choupo-Moting, Kurt Zouma and Darren Fletcher all drawing well-timed interceptions from the returning van Dijk before Forster produced the first of several fine stops to palm away Xherdan Shaqiri’s close-range shot on the quarter-hour mark.

As it happened, Nathan Redmond might have given Saints the lead with one of the best chances of the half, the winger nudging wide of the target under pressure from the covering Diouf after racing onto Dusan Tadic’s defence-splitting pass.

As the tempo quickened and the game stretched, only goal-saving interceptions from Ryan Bertrand on Shaqiri, Jack Butland on Shane Long and Forster acrobatically once more on Choupo-Moting kept the scores level before Diouf broke the deadlock on 40 minutes.

The Senegalese’s firm header from Shaqiri’s corner put the Potters in front and they may have even doubled their lead within 90 seconds after van Dijk’s trip on Stoke’s number 18 in the penalty area.
Saido Berahino stepped up, Forster superbly denied him to keep his side in contention at half-time.

Two headed chances for Long kicked off a spell of sustained dominance for Pellegrino’s men after the restart with Sofiane Boufal and Manolo Gabbiadini taking the places of Steven Davis and Redmond.

Yoshida smashed superbly past Butland on the volley on 75 minutes followingsome sloppy Stoke defending to drag Saints back into contention only for substitute Crouch to poke into the net inside the six-yard box late on.

Gabbiadini twice went close to salvaging a point in stoppage time but it was not to be for the men in turquoise and black.

We go again after the international break. 

Head to Head Stats

• Possession (%)
  30

  70
• Shots
  17

  21
• Shots on target
  6

  3
• Corners
  5

  6
• Passes Complete
  171

  533