Southampton boss Nathan Jones was taunted with a giant mocked up P45 as he witnessed his side fall to defeat against 10-man Wolves on Saturday afternoon.
The under-fire Welshman has struggled to endear himself to the St Mary’s faithful since replacing Ralph Hasenhuttl on the south coast, winning only one of his opening seven Premier League matches since taking charge in November, leaving his side bottom of the table. After their 3-0 loss at Brentford last weekend, the ex-Luton Town manager said he had "let the players down" by not doing things his way.
And with his future seemingly on the line - depending on who you ask - Jones was handed more than a little help by the Premier League’s Australian official Jarred Gillett during a tempestuous first-half, in which his side took a 1-0 lead - thanks to young Argentine Carlos Alcaraz - and saw their visitors reduced to 10 men following the dismissal of former Southampton midfielder Mario Lemina.
Lemina, who joined Wolves in January from Nice for £9million, was initially shown a yellow card inside the opening 10 minutes. The Gabonese international’s studs met the achilles of Alcaraz, a foul was given and a booking rightly followed; Lemina himself was understanding and apologetic.
Three minutes after Alcaraz's goal, Lemina was dismissed.
Wolves were unhappy with the referee not calling a foul on Lemina as he attempted to dribble through his own half. Southampton turned over possession and won a throw in deep in the away side’s half. As it went out of play, both Wolves captain Ruben Neves and veteran midfielder Joao Moutinho approached Gillett and had words with the official.
Lemina ran from further away than his teammates to also have his say with play stopped. He was still further away than both of the Portuguese pair when his trot slowed down to a walk. Only at that point did Gillett turn around and turned his gaze from Moutinho - whom he could be seen telling to go away - before turning back to Lemina and instantly bringing out the second yellow and the red.
Wolves bench, it's understood, were told Lemina was shown the second yellow for "running aggressively" at the official. They were furious. For Jones and his side, they couldn't have asked for a better position. But in the second half, they absolutely bottled it.
Having initially looked in control of proceedings, they gradually allowed Wolves to get a foothold in the game, the changes made by Julen Lopetegui, notably Adama Traore, offering the away side a greater counter-attacking threat.
Jan Bednarek put through his own net in the 72nd minute to level the scores after fine work from Traore caused confusion in the home side's defence. The goal was met with delight in the away end, and saw the home fans suddenly become very, very tense.
With 87 minutes on the clock, delight turned to delirium for the travelling fans, as Joao Gomes, on debut, fired home to make it 2-1 to Wolves. The mood among those in red and white turned to fury.
"You're getting sacked in the morning," chanted all four sides of the ground. One young fan and his father, with a mocked up giant P45, waltzed along the front of the stand towards the home dugout as the calls from supporters turned to "Nathan Jones, get out of our club". Stewards intercepted the pair, and initially attempted to confiscate the sign, before ejecting the man from the ground.
The full-time whistle was met with more vehement booing from the home supporters, while Jones, quickly headed down the tunnel straight away.
Asked if this is his final game as Southampton manager post-match, Jones said: “I have no idea really.”
He added: “The first half is the best we’ve played at home. It was more of what we want to be and how we want to do things We knew we had to go after the second goal and we did. We had a glorious chance to make it 2-0. We had enough situations to win this game."
Instead, his time looks almost up.
