Tuesday evening’s Premier League action between Southampton and Watford at Vicarage Road took manager Ralph Hasenhuttl one point closer to his aim of avoiding relegation in the campaign of 2018/19.
Shane Long’s record breaking goal 7.69 seconds gave us the advantage in the match, but Watford did deny us all three points very late on in the game as they hit the leveller, but with three games remaining in the season we have a six point gap on Cardiff City so are just potentially one game away from our survival becoming a mathematical guarantee.
Speaking to the Daily Echo in his post-game press conference, our Austrian gaffer was certainly taking the positives from the night and he did raise the pressure on the squad a touch to ensure we reached our aim in the upcoming clash against Bournemouth.
“This is a very important point because now we are six points ahead of Cardiff and three points ahead of Brighton and we have a home game against Bournemouth where we want to make the last step. It will be fantastic if we are safe two games from the end. When I was coming if you told me we had the chance to make it clear against Bournemouth I would take it for sure. Now let’s have a look.”
Whilst the table itself doesn’t really look pretty, the overall change in form under Hasenhuttl is obvious to everyone and despite some hiccups along the way, if we can make it mathematically sure this weekend, it will certainly take the pressure off and then preparations for the year ahead can really begin.
