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In-form Southampton ended Coventry’s six-match winning run with a 2-1 victory at the CBS Arena. Flynn Downes pounced on a rebound to open the scoring shortly after half-time before Kuryu Matsuki doubled Southampton’s lead with five minutes remaining.
Victor Torp’s stoppage-time penalty gave the leaders hope but they fell to their second home defeat of the season and Southampton extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 12.
Southampton stunned the home side three minutes into the second half. Matsuki’s cross evaded Cyle Larin and the goalkeeper, Carl Rushworth, and rebounded off a post, where it was met by Downes who could not miss from inside the six-yard box.
Southampton doubled their advantage in fortunate fashion when James Bree’s corner hit the leg of the unmarked Matsuki and rolled past a helpless Rushworth.
Torp stepped up in added time to dispatch a penalty he had won after he was fouled by Shea Charles and the inevitable onslaught followed as Coventry desperately searched for an equaliser.
Frank Lampard said: “I don’t think we deserved to lose. We created big chances and we gave them two goals, which is disappointing. That’s quite rare for us this season, but if we were more clinical in both boxes we win the game.”
“It’s a big result,” said the Southampton head coach, Tonda Eckert. “We had so many questions this week why we weren’t able to beat teams in the top six and that just fuelled us for the game to make a statement.
“We’ve done this against Fulham, to show that we can beat better teams and Ithat’s been another statement today. We knew that the game today was going to be completely different and I think it’s a well-deserved three points.”
Middlesbrough’s faltering promotion push suffered another blow as Adam Randell’s 96th-minute header earned Bristol City a 1-1 draw at the Riverside.
Boro thought they were heading for a much-needed victory when the substitute Leo Castledine opened the scoring in the 65th minute. However, after Castledine’s fellow replacement, David Strelec, wasted an excellent chance to double his side’s lead, Randell headed home Tomi Horvat’s corner deep in stoppage time to level the scores. The draw means Boro have now failed to win their past four home games.
Nevertheless, Boro head coach Kim Hellberg was proud despite another failure to win at home. “It was an unbelievable performance again,” he said. “How we play, how we act, how we create chances.
“It was a top performance, but it’s tough if you don’t kill the game off, there can be an opportunity for a team that have their first chance to score in 95 minutes. That was the disappointment, but again, if you look at the performance, you are looking at a team that have played very good football.”
Bristol City’s Gerhard Struber said: “It’s a special point. Being resilient was how the boys were committed to the match plan. It was well deserved for the resilience, discipline and the big effort we left on the field.”
Charlie Kelman’s added-time penalty earned Charlton a 1-1 draw at the Kassam Stadium to deny Oxford United a fourth straight league win in their battle to beat the drop. Kelman tucked away the spot-kick in the third minute of added time after the Ciaron Brown fouled Lloyd Jones.
Cameron Brannagan had given Oxford the lead in the 57th minute, also from the spot – the first penalty Oxford have been awarded in nearly two years. Kayne Ramsay brought down Will Lankshear, and Brannagan slotted the penalty just beyond Will Mannion’s dive and into the bottom-left corner.
Oxfordhead coach Matt Bloomfield said: “It feels like two points dropped because of the timing of the goal, but we all have to remember we’ve put a point on our total, which is a positive against extremely tough opposition.”
His counterpart, Nathan Jones, felt the penalty was soft. “It was the poorest of decisions,” he said. “Sometimes they get swayed by the crowd, and emotions, and don’t make clear decisions. My players didn’t listen at half-time, their players did, and we played into their hands.”
Three other sides with hopes of automatic promotion are in action in the 3pm kick-offs: Millwall host Blackburn, while Ipswich travel to relegated Sheffield Wednesday and Hull are at struggling West Brom.
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This story will be updated
