Southampton headed to Wales and the Liberty Stadium yesterday evening to face off against fellow relegation candidates Swansea City.
Emotions captured. 😍
Unforgettable scenes for #SaintsFC fans at St Mary's last night
📸➡️ https://t.co/voKCLQRD8n pic.twitter.com/wmmvEcbntZ— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) May 9, 2018
Both sides went into the game level on 33 points, so this was the proverbial six-pointer with victory for Southampton effectively seeing us safe outwith a ten-goal difference reversal being seen on the final day of the 2017/18 campaign.
Mathematical safety it’s not, it still goes down to the final day as we face Manchester City but with such a big margin to overcome, Southampton should be safe with the battle now being between Swansea and Huddersfield Town.
🗣 "We stuck at it, we got the goal and now we are nearly there.”#SaintsFC's @jackstephens_18
on an emotional night in South Wales: https://t.co/pBjpMsjCmQ— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) May 9, 2018
Praising a ‘big performance’ from the side as Mark Hughes spoke to the BBC following the full-time whistle, the gaffer was obviously delighted with our evening’s work and our efforts since he walked through the door.
“I came in late to proceedings and needed to get a reaction out of players who had maybe lost their way somewhat. I have to say, since I’ve come in they’ve worked hard and, even when results went against us, never diminished belief. It is not mathematically certain. We had to come here and we had to win. If we had not won today it would have been very, very difficult for us. It is not done yet but tonight we have put ourselves in the position where we have a great chance to stay up. We will enjoy tonight, we got what we set out to get. A huge result, we are delighted but there’s still got work to do.”
Mark Hughes hailed the collective efforts of #SaintsFC players, staff and supporters after victory over #Swans: https://t.co/HrTt2s4ktb
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) May 9, 2018
Having arrived at the stadium to some issues when it came to access pre-match, there was also the Marriott Hotel cancellation to deal with ahead of the game. Hughes confirmed that a natural thought was the ‘dark arts’ were at play but with no real accusations, he just confirmed that the squad had used it as a motivator to ensure it didn’t knock us off track.
Furthermore, he hinted our replacement hotel may now be our base in the future in any even given the welcome we got from the Vale of Glamorgan.
Quite nicely phrased I thought!
We see you, @mattletiss7! 👀 #saintsfc pic.twitter.com/jFtDc7sigF
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) May 9, 2018
Morning, #SaintsFC fans!
Recovered from the stress of last night yet? 😅 pic.twitter.com/dnjqIXIbhU
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) May 9, 2018
Waking up thinking we are going to stay up. First time I have done that for about 6 months!!😇😇😇😇😇
— Shaun Saintly (@Shaunsaint1976) May 9, 2018
We have just got to hope that the board have learned from this seasons debacle.
— Nic Caddy (@KingslandBloke) May 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/TheMeltdownKing/status/993983952993038336
New contract for Hughes before the last game of the season please @SouthamptonFC #saintsfc
Cheers
— Trousers (@Lord_Trousers) May 8, 2018
MARK HUGHES RED AND WHITE ARMY!
— Mahmoud (@Mahmoud_SFC) May 8, 2018