Southampton 1-1 Crystal Palace: Substitute Matheus Franca claims late point for the Eagles to deny Saints a third win of the season
- Crystal Palace snatched a late point at St Mary’s thanks to Matheus Franca
- Southampton stayed rooted to the bottom of the Premier League on 10 points
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The good news for Southampton is 30 games in, they are finally on double digits in points. The bad news is they still trail that risible record of 11 set by Derby County in 2007-08.
Saints supporters can only wonder when they will catch a break. They turn up for every home fixture in the hope it is not a futile endeavour, even with the brass band outside of St Mary’s Stadium beginning to resemble that troupe which went down with the Titanic.
Here they had their chance to finally secure a home win under Ivan Juric, with a commanding header from 6ft 7in Paul Onuachu showing what can happen if you supply the Premier League’s tallest striker with crosses for him to attack.
They held on to that lead for 72 minutes until Crystal Palace substitute Matheus Franca sneaked his headed equaliser beyond Aaron Ramsdale in stoppage time.
With that, Southampton were bumped back down to 10 points and one shy of Derby’s total after Juric had turned to an unusual motivational message in midweek.
He had told his team their goal is to avoid being crowned the worst in Premier League history.
Substitute Matheus Franca scored a late equaliser as Crystal Palace drew 1-1 at Southampton
Southampton were heading for only their third win of the season after Paul Onuachu’s opener
Franca sneaked his header past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale in the 92nd minute at St Mary’s
They gave it a go here, but are still sweating on where the other points will come from, with it not long now until their fate is confirmed mathematically.
‘I’m really sorry for the fans and for the guys that we didn’t win because we deserved it,’ Juric said.
‘I had a good sensation on the bench. If we play like this every game, we will gain the points.’
This was Palace’s first match since confirming they will compete in the FA Cup’s semi-finals at Wembley, and manager Oliver Glasner said: ‘It’s a very good point, especially given how the game was.
‘We were not at our top level. We looked mentally tired after the big win at Fulham.’
After Jean-Philippe Mateta’s 25-yard strike crashed into the crossbar within 90 seconds, Southampton’s fans begged their team to attack, and Mateus Fernandes did as told.
He was a creative menace and there was nobody near Fernandes when he sent in a perfect cross for Onuachu to give Southampton their rare lead.
Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson could have done better, given he got a good hand to it.
Jean-Philippe Mateta came close for the travelling Eagles, striking the crossbar from 25 yards
Southampton stayed rooted to the bottom of the Premier League on 10 points after the draw
Mateta thought he had equalised with a swivelled shot after 36 minutes, but Ramsdale got down to make an even smarter save, with the former Arsenal goalkeeper continuing to show why he would be wasted in the Championship.
Ramsdale was also brave in stopping Eddie Nketiah from reaching a short back pass but after all of his good work in goal, he was beaten late on by Franca.
