West Brom 0 - 1 SouthamptonJordy Clasie breaks duck as Southampton close gap on West Brom
Away team scorersJordy Clasie 25
Claude Puel insisted Southampton’s win can give them a perfect platform to end the season. Jordy Clasie’s first Premier League goal earned back-to-back league wins to edge the Saints four points behind West Brom, who are eighth.
Puel’s side have two games in hand on Albion but they were indebted to Fraser Forster who produced a fine reaction stop to deny Craig Dawson an equaliser in injury time. And the Frenchman is looking ahead to the final seven games following Clasie’s first-half winner.
“We will see in the future but it was important to take this result, to keep a good ambition for the end of the season. I think the spirit and attitude of the players was perfect,” said Puel, with Southampton ninth. “Now it’s important to keep this regularly and we will see against [Manchester] City for the next game.
“Of course it’s a great challenge but it’s important to keep this confidence for this game.
“It was important because we lost our first game against this team at home so it was important to take a little revenge but that was not the most important thing.”
Saints were comfortable for long spells but needed Forster to secure the points when he clawed away Dawson’s six-yard volley before saving from Jonny Evans a minute later.
Puel said: “It was fantastic for Fraser to finish the game with a clean sheet. I think we made a fantastic first half with quality in many situations and many opportunities but without the second goal.
“I am happy for the team because it showed quality in the first half and character in the second half with Fraser.”
It was a forgettable game where the Baggies lacked the necessary quality to break their opponents down as Salomón Rondón, the Venezuela forward, who has not scored since December, was also thwarted by Forster in the first half.
Defeat was Albion’s second on the spin after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Watford as they strive to reach 50 points for the first time in the Premier League.
Their manager, Tony Pulis, said: “We’ve got to hit the target and be more clinical in front of goal.
“Southampton are a good side but in the last 20 to 25 minutes we really took over the game. That’s when you need that little bit of composure to put the ball in the back of the net.
“There are lots of areas I’m going to look at in the summer, there’s no way in a million years that I’m going to criticise this group of players.”
The Saints clung on to their slender lead as the Baggies pressed in the latter stages but could not find a way through thanks to Forster’s saves in stoppage time.
First, Dawson was not tracked as he latched on to Jake Livermore’s lofted pass but Forster pulled off a brilliant one-handed reaction stop to beat away the defender’s six-yard volley.
Then, a minute later, the England goalkeeper turned Evans’s late header away to seal victory.
Guardian
