Southampton’s Boss Martin Issues ‘Aggressive’ 3 Words Message To Boys After Stoke City Win
SAINTS manager Russell Martin declared his side’s first clean sheet of the season a “real team effort” as they beat Stoke City 1-0.
Stuart Armstrong’s first-half free-kick was enough for Saints at Bet365 Stadium as they recorded back-to-back Championship wins.
It puts to bed the run of four successive defeats that preceded the turnaround and gives supporters renewed faith in new boss Martin.
Saints had chanced to kill the game in Stoke but also rode their luck at the back as Alex Neil’s charges failed to make pressure pay.
Speaking after the match, Martin told the Daily Echo: “I thought we were great, really good to follow up on the effort we put in on Saturday against another really good team,”
“I’m really proud of the boys and really grateful to them. We built up so well in the first half but it kept breaking down in the final third.
“In transition, we were really good. Flynn was monstrous today and it has been the Flynn we know in the last two games. He’s been outstanding.
“Everyone was really fighting for each other and really aggressive, while we also took the fight out of the game we needed to with incredible moments of calmness.
“We spoke about that before the game and you have to be brave to do that amongst the chaos and they were.”
He added: “We should have (killed the game), we had some incredible chances to.
Stu’s header, Charly (Alcaraz) going through and Kamaldeen (Sulemana)’s chance, Sekou (Mara’s) chance a bit later on. We didn’t make the most of some brilliant moments.
“I think when the team has had some more positive results and is flowing a bit more we kill the game off. We limited Stoke to very little which was good.
“We had to show both sides of the game tonight and we did that. I’m really pleased for Gavin (Bazunu) and the back four. For everyone, it was a real team effort for the clean sheet.”
On Armstrong’s stunning free-kick, Martin joked: “You haven’t had the chance to see that yet! (James) Ward-Prowse has taken everything for the last 10 years. He’s brilliant at them.
“Him and Charly practice a lot, it was nice to see it go in and it’s a brilliant goal – it deserves to win the game.
“Stu has been immense in the last two games and has really stepped up when we needed him to. Hopefully, he sees how much he will enjoy playing for this team.
“He’s another player who has had a tough year and it’s about trying to get him back to the Stuey Armstrong I played with many moons ago.”
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