Soccer

Michael Obafemi nets as Saints make it two on the bounce

Pl round-up: West Ham’s winning streak ends while Bournemouth saw off Brighton

Southampton’s Michael Obafemi celebrates scoring his side’s third goal of the game during the Premier League win over Huddersfield Town. Photo: Richard Sellers/PA Wire

Sat Dec 22 2018 - 17:09

Huddersfield Town 1 Southampton 3

The Ralph Hasenhuttl revival continued for Southampton as they followed up victory over Arsenal by seeing off fellow strugglers Huddersfield.

The 3-1 success at the John Smith’s Stadium marked the first time since April 2017 that Saints have won back-to-back Premier League games and they pulled three points clear of the bottom three.

The impressive Nathan Redmond opened the scoring in the 15th minute and Danny Ings scored his eighth of the season from the penalty spot three minutes before half-time.

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Philip Billing pulled one back for Huddersfield in the 58th minute — just the fourth goal the Terriers have scored at home in the league this season — but 18-year-old Irish striker Michael Obafemi’s first senior goal condemned them to a fifth straight defeat.

Obafemi had only been on the pitch for seven minutes after replacing Ings and had already pulled a shot wide of Lossl’s goal.

While this was a special moment for the teenager, it was a horrible one for Terriers captain Christopher Schindler, who tried to turn out of trouble in his own area but was robbed by Redmond and the wideman set up Obafemi to slide the ball past Lossl.

Obafemi was denied a second by Lossl but that would merely have added gloss and the afternoon ended with the Saints fans waving their Santa hats in the air in triumph.

West Ham United 0 Watford 2

Troy Deeney gleefully helped halt West Ham’s winning run and lifted Watford towards the top six.

The Hornets skipper slammed home a first-half penalty and Gerard Deulofeu added a late second to sink West Ham 2-0 and scupper their bid to win five matches on the spin.

Deeney, relishing his role as pantomime villain at the London Stadium, celebrated his successful spot-kick by punching the corner flag out of ground and goading the home supporters.

The 30-year-old certainly seems to relish playing against West Ham. Two seasons ago he accused the Hammers of “trying to mug us off” with their showboating after he inspired Watford to come from two goals down and win 4-2.

Fortunately only one home supporter reacted to his ‘exuberant’ celebration, and the paper cup that was thrown towards the striker fell a long way short.

Bournemouth 2 Brighton & Hove Albion 0

Midfielder David Brooks continued his fine run of form with a superb brace to earn Bournemouth a 2-0 home win over 10-man Brighton and Hove Albion in a lively Premier League clash.

Brooks fired Bournemouth ahead with a rasping shot from 20 metres in the 21st minute and after Brighton had defender Lewis Dunk sent off in the second half, the 21-year old Welshman sealed the home side’s win with a fine looping header.

Bournemouth, who celebrated only their second league win in the last eight matches, moved up to eighth position on 26 points from 18 games while Brighton stayed 13th after suffering their third successive defeat.

Brighton had made a brighter start and twice came close through Yves Bissouma, with Bournemouth keeper Asmir Begovic denying the Mali midfielder before he clawed out a stinging low shot by Jurgen Locadia.

Bournemouth took the lead when Brooks side-stepped his marker and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the bottom left corner of the net with visiting goalkeeper Matt Ryan clutching thin air.

Begovic kept out a Dunk header in the 44th minute and shortly after the centre back was dismissed for a second bookable foul, Brooks was on target again in the 77th when he twisted in mid-air to head home Ryan Fraser’s cross.

Newcastle United 0 Fulham 0

Fulham secured their first clean sheet of the season with some dogged defending in a 0-0 draw with Newcastle United.

The hosts, looking for a second successive win, were unable to find a way past a Fulham side who remain bottom of the standings but have stopped shipping goals at the rate they did before coach Claudio Ranieri succeeded Slavisa Jokanovic.

That was almost undone after 20 minutes at St James’ Park as a header from Jamaal Lascelles took a deflection off Fulham striker and ex-Newcastle man Aleksandar Mitrovic and was going in before being hooked off the line.

Newcastle had a penalty appeal turned down before halftime with a Matt Ritchie shot appearing to hit the hand of defender Calum Chambers, although referee Martin Atkinson was not convinced.

Rafa Benitez’s side continued to pump balls into the area in the second half ,looking to find the head of striker Salomon Rondon, but the Venezuelan could not carve out a clear-cut chance.

Newcastle had another appeal for a penalty late on when Kenedy felt he was pulled by Fulham’s Joe Bryan in the box. However, again, the hosts were denied a spot kick as the match finished in a stalemate leaving them 14th in the standings.