Rothwell: The greatest goal I've ever scored
Joe Rothwell reflected on the best goal he has ever scored, as he sparked an incredible comeback that ended with Southampton beating Huddersfield 5-3 on a remarkable afternoon at St Mary's.
With Saints trailing 2-0 at half time, Rothwell lit the touch paper on a furious turnaround by netting a sensational volley shortly after the break, before equalising less than two minutes later.
Although Huddersfield would retake the lead, Rothwell's delivery then led to an own goal that levelled the match again and set the stage for the hosts to score two late goals that sealed all three points.
Reflecting on his first goal, as his volley from 18 yards arrowed into the top corner, the midfielder said: "It was the best I've ever scored. As soon as I've hit it I knew it had a real chance of going in. I've not watched it back yet, but I'm sure I'll have it on replay a little bit tonight."
Speaking about the performance as a whole, Rothwell, who came on as a first-half substitute for the injured Flynn Downes, said: "It was a real contrast of halves. We were nowhere near where we should’ve been in the first half, and rightly behind in the game. We had to make a few adjustments at half time, and thankfully managed to come out and get a couple of early goals. Then had another setback, but managed to overcome it and managed to get all three points.
"We were just half a yard short of where we should’ve been, gave them too much time, weren’t moving for each other. There were just a few small adjustments we had to make, and thankfully we did that and managed to get out of it with three points.
"I think it just shows the character that’s in this group. We knew even at 2-0 we always had a chance as long as we got the next goal. We managed to get two quick ones. They managed to get themselves in front again, another setback, but the character in the changing room and the pros we’ve got in there showed massive belief. We knew as long as we kept doing what we were doing, we could get a positive result.
"I think the gaffer said this is probably the first time in the run of games where they've not lost that they've probably had a bit of adversity, and these are the type of games where if you do go up at the end of the season you could go up by three points and you could say this is the game that did it for us.
"You've got to win all types of games and today we showed another side of what we can do, we're not just about nice football and so on, we managed to dig in and fully deserved three points by the end of the game."
Viewing this page on a mobile device? Download the Saints app for all the latest news, feature videos and interactive content to get you closer to the action!
