That’s all from me. Thanks for reading and emailing. Nght!
Here’s Dominic Fifield’s match report from St Mary’s.
Chris Hughton speaks! “Exciting stuff for you and dramatic stuff if you’re standing in the dugout. It’s the second successive game where we’ve come from 2-0 down. You’ve got to look at the character in the team.”
Glenn Murray speaks! “I think after the way we performed first half, we got away with one. We were poor. Second half it was different, we put them under pressure and got our reward. We’ll work on it and hopefully put it right for Saturday afternoon. We were disappointed with the way we played and the gaffer let us know. We were down against Fulham as well and that gave us a bit of heart. At 2-1 it’s always a cautious score. It’s about putting our away form right and hopefully climbing the table a bit more.”
Southampton led 2-0! At home! Against Brighton! In the second half! And they still couldn’t win! Fair play to Brighton, though. They looked out of it after Danny Ings had added to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s first-half striker. Yet they pulled themselves back into it through Shane Duffy’s header and the defender was in the thick of it when he won a last-minute penalty, which Glenn Murray converted. It means Southampton stay 13th and Brighton stay 14th, with both sides on five points after five games.
Full-time: Southampton 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
That’s your lot!
90 min+3: Bertrand whips the free-kick over the wall, but Ryan dives to his right and pushes it away!
90 min+2: Locadia gives the ball away just inside Brighton’s half and then he picks up a booking for fouling Ward-Prowse on the edge of the area. Knockaert’s also been booked for his celebration after Murray’s penalty.
GOAL! Southampton 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (Murray pen, 90 min+1)
Murray steps up and sends McCarthy the wrong way from the spot! McCarthy goes left, the ball goes right and Brighton have come back from two goals down! Southampton have thrown it away!
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PENALTY TO BRIGHTON!
90 min: Another Brighton corner comes in and Anthony Taylor points to the spot after spying Ward-Prowse’s shove on Duffy!
89 min: Murray flicks a long ball on to Locadia. Knockaert runs on to the ball and his shot from 18 yards is deflected over for a Brighton corner! The corner comes in and McCarthy somehow claws Locadia’s close-range header over the bar. Another corner! And...
87 min: Out on the left, Ryan knocks a dreadful clearance straight to Gabbiadini. With the goal unguarded, the Southampton has a chance to embarrass the Brighton goalkeeper - but his rushed effort from 40 yards drifts wide.
86 min: McCarthy picks up a booking for taking too long over a goal-kick.
84 min: Steven Davis replaces Danny Ings, whose penalty separates the sides.
81 min: Locadia runs at a backtracking Southampton defence, only to step on the ball and fall over. Whoops. He hasn’t covered himself in glory since coming on.
80 min: Some pressure from Brighton. Bong slips a pass through to Knockaert, who twists and turns on the left before fizzing a low ball towards the near post. With his back to goal, Jahanbakhsh turns a clever effort into the side netting.
77 min: Stephens goes into the book for clattering into Gabbiadini. Welcome to the game, Manolo.
76 min: Manolo Gabbiadini replaces Shane Long and James Ward-Prowse replaces Mohamed Elyounoussi. Brighton respond by introducing Jurgen Locadia for Yves Bissouma, an attacking change.
73 min: Long runs down the left and falls over. Brighton can’t clear their lines, though, and give the ball back to Ings, who curls one over from the left.
71 min: Alireza Jahanbakhsh replaces Solly March.
70 min: Redmond scoots inside from the left and sees his low side-footer blocked. You suspect Southampton will need a third.
A free-kick to Brighton on the right touchline. Knockaert swings it in and Southampton immediately look in trouble. McCarthy stays on his line, even though it’s a deep delivery, and Duffy nods home from close range! This isn’t over yet!
Updated
GOAL! Southampton 2-1 Brighton (Duffy, 67 min)
Brighton are back in it!
GOAL! Southampton 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion (Ings pen, 65 min)
Having won the penalty, Ings stutters up to the ball and confidently strokes the ball low to Ryan’s right for his third goal of the season. Southampton have some breathing space and Brighton’s miserable away form shows no sign of abating.
Updated
PENALTY TO SOUTHAMPTON!
63 min: Southampton have upped the intensity in the last few minutes and Danny Ings catches out Brighton with a surge into the area from the right. Bong comes across and clumsily brings him down. There’s no doubt about that one.
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58 min: Southampton have dropped back since half-time. This feels like a big half for them. It would do wonders for their mentality if they can defend this lead.
57 min: Bissouma’s free-kick is a spectacular waste of time.
56 min: March wins a free-kick off Soares on the left. The Southampton right-back’s booked.
54 min: Out of nothing, Southampton break and Long finds himself racing on to a long ball. He beats the onrushing Ryan to it and knocks it behind for a goal-kick. Good defending. Oh.
53 min: The resulting corner from March is poor. “Regarding your minute 17 entry I don’t think you needed the descriptor ‘peeved’ when mentioning Mark Hughes’ face,” says JR in Illinois. “As far as I can tell he has two emotions, peeved and aggrieved, and there isn’t a difference in his expression between the two. Therefore you could have just said “Mark Hughes stands on the touchline with his face.”
52 min: Southampton are edgy. Now Murray wins a corner. The away fans sound encouraged.
51 min: This is better from Brighton, March dashing down the left and sending in a cross that just evades Murray. Montoya picks up possession on the right and sends in a cross that the unmarked Propper heads wide. Moments later Knockaert scoots in from the right, ignores March to his left and lets fly from 18 yards. McCarthy beats his fierce drive away and March can’t control his follow-up.
Updated
47 min: A stat flashes up on the screen: Southampton have dropped 11 points from winning positions since Mark Hughes’s appointment in March. So there’s hope yet for Brighton.
46 min: Southampton get the second half underway.
Are you sitting down?
Updated
Half-time: Southampton 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Southampton are good value for the lead, though it took a special goal from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to break down Brighton. The visitors need a massive improvement. See you in 15 minutes.
45 min+1: Bissouma belts one miles wide.
45 min: Will Brighton ever win another away game?
42 min: “As a Dane, I must dutifully inform you that you are presently misspelling the name of Southampton’s Danish central defender,” Christian Kolding says. “It’s Vestergaard, not Vestegaard. Alas, you’ve carelessly overlooked one of the R’s! The name means “western estate” or “western manor” but by omitting the R, you’ve reduced it to a humble vest, like a gilet... Nobody wants to be remembered for a gilet... not even Tactics Tim. As for the other Dane, Højbjerg means “High Mountain...” “A mountain up high” - he’s definitely on a roll.”
39 min: Out of nowhere Bissouma finally injects some urgency into a Brighton attack. He has options left and right, but he overruns the ball and Hoedt makes the challenge on the edge of Southampton’s area. The two men require treatment after colliding.
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37 min: Hojbjerg is a funny player. The first time I saw him play was for Bayern Munich in 2014. He was breathtakingly good against Manchester City. Yet here he is playing for a middling Premier League side. He hasn’t really been consistent for Southampton. But he’s making amends for his stupid red card in last month’s home defeat to Leicester.
El Younoussi darts down the right and sends in another cross. It’s cleared as far as Hojbjerg, who takes a touch before sending a stunning right-footed drive swerving to Ryan’s right and into the corner of Brighton’s goal from 30 yards! What a strike! That’s the Dane’s second goal in two games and Southampton have a deserved lead.
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion (Hojbjerg, 35 min)
There’s the cutting edge!
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34 min: The only problem for Southampton is a lack of cutting edge. El Younoussi shoots wide from 20 yards.
32 min: Stephens takes a while to make up his mind near the halfway line and then he decides to give the ball back to Southampton. This is not good from Brighton, who are asking for it.
31 min: Brighton are offering nothing as an attacking force. They can’t keep the ball.
28 min: Bertrand dashes down the left and forces Duffy to turn his low cross away.
27 min: Redmond dashes down the left, cuts inside and drifts a cross to the far post. El Younoussi rises above Bong and heads a wonderful chance wide of the left post.
26 min: Southampton are making most of the running now. Brighton are pinned back.
23 min: Brighton have conceded 24 goals from set-pieces since the start of last season. You can see why.
21 min: El Younoussi drifts the corner high to the far post. Brighton’s defending is useless. Hojbjerg’s allowed to nod the ball down and it eventually comes to Ings, six yards out. The striker tries to stab it past Ryan, only for Knockaert to deny him with a desperate block. The rebound falls to Hoedt, who fires over the angle of post and bar! Southampton should be ahead.
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20 min: Redmond wriggles into the area from the left and finds Ings, who sees an instinctive stabbed shot deflected wide for a corner on the right.
19 min: “Southampton’s left flank - the Bertrand/Redmond axis - is the only source of inspiration in this Southampton team so far,” Lee Madden says. “They utterly lack any sort of creativity on the middle of pitch and long balls to Shane Long surely are not going good enough for a team with top 10 aspirations.”
17 min: El Younoussi swings a dismal free-kick behind for a goal-kick. The Brighton fans jeer and Mark Hughes stands on the touchline with his hands on his hips and a peeved expression on his face.
14 min: March escapes down the left, reaching the byline, and shows good composure not to rush his cross. Instead he waits a moment, looks up and picks out Knockaert. The French winger takes a touch and sees a weak effort charged down.
11 min: Vibe: low-key.
8 min: “I am puzzled why Houghton doesn’t play Jahanbakhsh in the starting lineup?” Chris McVandi says. “The top scorer of the 2017-18 Eredivisie and Brighton’s record breaking signing has been a “benchy” in PL matches since joining. Does that make sense to you?”
It does. He still needs time to adjust to the pace of English football. He could prove a canny addition, though.
Updated
7 min: Redmond scoots down the left. He beats Montoya on the outside and lifts a cross to the far post, but Soares heads straight at Ryan.
7 min: Knockaert stays down after challenging Bertrand. He winces a bit. But he’;l live.
5 min: Southampton put a few passes together for the first time. Vestegaard moves forward and rakes a pass from right to left, looking for Bertrand. Montoya sticks out his leg and diverts the ball back towards his own goal. It loops high into the air and, luckily for the right-back, drops into Ryan’s arms. That could have been a calamitous own goal.
3 min: Brighton win a free-kick on the halfway line. They take it short and work the ball to Bong. His cross is charged down.
Peep! With smoke still billowing around St Mary’s, Brighton get us underway. In their green away strip, they pump it long immediately. Southampton are in red and white stripes.
Here come the teams! There’s even a lights show at St Mary’s! Let’s hope it isn’t better than what’s to come.
Team news
Southampton: McCarthy; Soares, Vestegaard, Hoedt, Bertand; El Younoussi, Hojbjerg, Lemina, Redmond; Long, Ings. Subs: Gunn, Yoshida, Targett, Davis, Ward-Prowse, Gabbiadini, Austin.
Brighton: Ryan, Montoya, Duffy, Dunk, Bong; Knockaert, Stephens, Propper, March; Bissouma; Murray. Subs: Button, Balogun, Bernardo, Kayal, Jahanbakhsh, Locadia.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
Preamble
Hello. Given that it is traditional to give all Premier League games the big sell, let’s begin by saying that this could be a pivotal night for both of these sides. It’s only September, but it feels like this fixture could leave a lasting impact. Honest! I’ve come up with an argument and everything.
Southampton, for example, are trying to work out what kind of season they’ll have. Is it to be a comfortable mid-table finish or another relegation scrap? Mark Hughes’s side are on a hot one-game winning streak, but they’ve also yet to taste victory at St Mary’s. Danny Ings is scoring, but Southampton have picked up one point from home games against Burnley and Leicester. If they can’t beat travellers as bad as Brighton & Hove Albion, their unease will deepen. If they win, however, they jump above Crystal Palace, Everton and Leicester and into 10th place.
But this is also a chance for Brighton to win on the road for the first time in 10 months. They only won two away games last season and they’re looking reliant on their home form again. Chris Hughton’s side have taken four points off Fulham and Manchester United at the Amex Stadium and nothing from trips to Liverpool and Watford. Another defeat would heighten the suspicion that they are going to be near the bottom three again.
There, that’s the big sell. All of which means it’s going to finish 1-1, right?
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
