Report: Aribo strikes late to win St Andrew's epic

Having trailed twice in the first half, Saints seemed on course for victory after taking a 3-2 lead and seeing the hosts reduced to 10 men following the 62nd minute dismissal of captain Dion Sanderson.

But Birmingham improbably levelled the scores 13 minutes from time, before Aribo arrived off the bench to poach a priceless winner.

The hosts flew out of the traps at the start of the game, scoring first through Koji Miyoshi and hitting the post though Juninho Bacuna inside the opening six minutes.

From that point on, Saints were outstanding with the ball in a first half in which they had 16 shots.

Adam Armstrong slotted home a deserved equaliser on 18 minutes, while Ché Adams and Armstrong also struck the woodwork either side of Birmingham’s second goal, which arrived completely against the run of play.

Saints then took charge after the interval, scoring twice in four minutes through David Brooks’s sumptuous curling shot and a striker’s finish from Adams, before Birmingham captain Dion Sanderson was given a straight red card for a studs-up tackle on Will Smallbone.

With a 3-2 lead and a man advantage, Saints were hot favourites to take home three points, but Bacuna was in the right place at the right time after the woodwork was hit yet again, this time by Stansfield, 13 minutes from the end of normal time.

With nine added minutes signalled, Saints pushed hard for a winner and got their rewards deep into stoppage time when Aribo pounced from a corner to inflict the final blow on Birmingham in a match for the ages.

Adam Armstrong strikes in the first half to level the scores at 1-1

Russell Martin made three changes to his last league line-up, including the much-anticipated return of Flynn Downes to the base of the Saints midfield.

Elsewhere there were also recalls for Ryan Manning and Adam Armstrong in place of injured pair Kyle Walker-Peters and Ryan Fraser.

Saints were coming into the game following back-to-back league defeats, having lost four of their last five in all competitions, so a good start felt important to help turn the tide.

Instead the hosts flew out of the traps to score first inside two minutes. Bacuna spread the ball wide to Miyoshi on the right, whose first touch had a hint of handball about it, Saints argued.

But the Japanese winger was allowed to continue and rifled a shot across Gavin Bazunu to find the far corner via a flick off the boot of Ryan Manning.

Things might have got worse when Bacuna went for goal himself soon after, bending one beyond Bazunu’s dive that crashed against his left-hand post and bounced wide off the back of the goalkeeper.

Saints were shell-shocked, but did begin to sharpen up quite quickly themselves in what was a very open start to the game.

Adam Armstrong’s cross from the left was met full on the volley by Brooks, but he drove the ball into the turf and watched it bounce over John Ruddy’s crossbar.

Then Downes slipped a pass through for Adams, making his first return to St Andrew’s, but the striker’s shot was rather tame and Ruddy gratefully collapsed on top of it.

David Brooks curls in Saints' second equaliser 10 minutes after half time

The positive signs were there, with Saints gaining confidence by the minute. Adam Armstrong forced a more strenuous save from Ruddy, stooping to his right to parry a 20-yarder away from danger.

The equaliser was coming and duly arrived on 18 minutes. Adams found Brooks on the right, who spotted the run of Armstrong through the middle and threaded a perfectly-weighted pass in behind the defence, from which Saints’ top scorer did not have to break stride as he tucked away goal number 17 of the season, calmly slotting through the legs of the advancing Ruddy.

It had been an impressive response from a Saints side who might easily have been 2-0 down inside six minutes.

Goalscorer Miyoshi was forced into a cynical foul on Stuart Armstrong for the game’s first yellow card as the visitors’ dominance continued, before Adams hit a low drive from outside the box that took a nick off defender Sanderson and struck Ruddy’s right-hand post with the keeper at full stretch.

Meanwhile, left-back Manning has never come closer to his first Saints goal than the next chance that fell his way on the half-hour mark.

Brooks’s short corner saw him combine with Stuart Armstrong and swing in a deep cross to the far post where the Irishman was waiting, attacking the ball well and heading it down with power, but Ruddy stuck out a foot to deny him, while Adams was unfortunate that the rebound just eluded him.

Ché Adams, falling as he hits it, puts Saints ahead for the first time

Saints kept pouring forward as the first-half chances kept coming. From a similar move to the goal, Brooks slipped in Smallbone, faced with a slightly tighter angle than goalscorer Armstrong, as Ruddy was forced into another low save.

The Birmingham keeper was busy again when sent sprawling by Downes, but suddenly Saints were exposed when Sanderson’s long ball was too high for Jan Bednarek, who stretched but could only get a faint contact with his head, allowing Stansfield to scamper in behind and finish emphatically, just as he did at St Mary’s in October, drilling the ball into the roof of the net.

Saints, to their credit, seemed unaffected by the setback four minutes before half time, creating two more chances of note before the interval.

First Adam Armstrong’s imaginative first-time curler hit the angle of post and bar with Ruddy rooted to the spot, before Jack Stephens, up from the back, found Smallbone in space, who drove a low shot across Ruddy’s dive and only inches wide.

The open nature of the contest continued into the second half. Blues started fast, claiming handball against Taylor Harwood-Bellis for a possible penalty before Bacuna sent a left-footed shot just wide.

Saints responded, forcing another Ruddy save from the boot of Adam Armstrong, before Brooks levelled the scores with a moment of individual brilliance.

Receiving the ball from Smallbone wide on the right, he jinked inside and perfectly picked out the far corner with a wonderful curling left-footed shot from 20 yards.

Saints had their tails up and took full advantage, as Birmingham’s world collapsed in the space of seven second-half minutes.

Smallbone helped himself to another assist when his deep cross was killed in an instant by Adams, who temporarily lost his footing, recovered, and found the net with a low shot through a crowded penalty area.

Joe Aribo watches on as his low shot finds the bottom corner to win the game

As if that wasn’t enough pain for the natives, seeing their former striker come back to haunt them, things got worse when captain Sanderson was shown a straight red card for a dangerous studs-up tackle on Smallbone.

Now Saints had the control to go with their avalanche of chances, as Martin introduced Samuel Edozie and Aribo in place of Brooks and Smallbone.

But that was not to be the end of the drama. Birmingham, seemingly down and out, hit back to level things up again 13 minutes from time.

Ethan Laird’s low cross from the right picked out Stansfield, whose instinctive first-time shot across Bazunu struck the far post and rebounded kindly into the path of Bacuna, who levelled things up once more at 3-3.

Saints pushed and pushed for a winner, with nine added minutes at the end of the 90.

After Adams went close in normal time and Adam Armstrong teased one across goal just behind substitute Sékou Mara, it was another of Martin’s replacements, Aribo, who held his nerve from Harwood-Bellis’s knockdown to round off an unforgettable afternoon.

Birmingham: Ruddy, Laird, Sanderson (c), Aiwu, Buchanan, Bacuna (Hall 90+6), Paik (Pritchard 68), Miyoshi (Sunjic 80), James, Dozzell (Drameh 68), Stansfield (Roberts 90+6).

Unused substitutes: Etheridge, Dembele, Hogan, Jutkiewicz.

Goals: Miyoshi (2’), Stansfield (41’), Bacuna (77’).

Yellow cards: Miyoshi, Sunjic.

Red card: Sanderson.

Southampton: Bazunu, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens (c), Bednarek, Manning (Rothwell 85), Downes (Kamaldeen 85), Smallbone (Aribo 70), S Armstrong, Brooks (Edozie 64), Adams (Mara 85), A Armstrong.

Unused substitutes: Lumley, Bree, Charles, Dibling.

Goals: A Armstrong (18’), Brooks (55’), Adams (59’), Aribo (90+6’).

Yellow card: Smallbone.

Referee: James Bell.

Attendance: 23,611 (2,156 away).