Martin: Red card changed the game
Russell Martin was left feeling hurt by the result but not by the effort of his team after seeing Southampton fall to a gut-wrenching late defeat to Leicester at St Mary’s.
Saints were firmly in control for the majority of the first hour, deservedly holding a 2-0 lead after first-half goals from Cameron Archer and Joe Aribo.
But an injury to Yukinari Sugawara forced a defensive reshuffle and Leicester immediately pulled one back through Facundo Buonanotte.
Sugawara’s replacement, Ryan Fraser, was then shown a straight red card for pulling back Jamie Vardy when the veteran striker was poised to equalise, before Vardy buried the resulting penalty.
The 10 men of Saints looked to have at least claimed a point from the game, only for substitute Jordan Ayew to snatch victory in the eighth minute of stoppage time after seven had been signalled.
“It’s hard. I think the sending-off changes the game completely, we were so good for the first half an hour – 2-0 up, in the ascendancy, big momentum,” Martin reflected.
“The last 15 minutes of the first half we didn’t look after the ball anywhere near well enough, but Leicester didn’t really have too many big moments.
“The start of the second half I thought we started really, really well. We looked so dangerous, a couple of chances we don’t score – a lot of pressure, a lot of momentum.
“Their goal came out of nothing, really. They didn’t really have a spell before that – frustrating from our point of view and it shouldn’t happen. We doubled up and he still gets to the byline and crosses, and someone frees themselves up in the box.
“Obviously at that point the momentum shifts a bit. Yuki is injured, we have to make a substitution that’s enforced, which is not ideal, and then Ryan obviously gets sent off, so that changes the game completely.
“They score the penalty and after that we defend really well on the whole. For large parts the lads show so much fight, so much spirit, and then someone doesn’t do their job on a corner and we concede – the same way as we did against Ipswich.
“I’m furious about that, I’m hurt with that, but I’m not hurt with the fight and the effort that the players gave us. They were brilliant.”
