Southampton 2-1 Wrexham

Saints Leave It Late But Leave It Perfect

Well, that was about as Saints as it gets, wasn’t it? Ninety minutes of huffing, puffing, and wondering if we’d brought our shooting boots or left them in League One, before Ryan Manning decided to remind everyone why we love this beautiful, torturous game. If you didn’t have your heart in your mouth until the 90th minute, you’re either not a proper Saints fan or you’ve got nerves of absolute steel.

For the best part of an hour and a half, St Mary’s felt like watching someone try to open a particularly stubborn jar of pickles. We dominated possession like we were playing keep-ball in the park (75% if you’re counting), peppered their goal with 27 shots, and yet somehow found ourselves staring down the barrel of another one of those nights where we’d be muttering about xG and cruel football gods. Wrexham, bless them, came with a plan that was about as adventurous as a Sunday afternoon in Eastleigh – sit deep, stay compact, and hope their keeper had brought his cape.

The Hollywood boys from North Wales clearly hadn’t read the script about rolling over for Championship opposition. Their goalkeeper was having the game of his life, pulling off seven saves that ranged from routine to absolutely ridiculous, while we were starting to look like a team that might struggle to score in a brothel with a fistful of fifties. Twenty-seven shots, ten on target, and still nothing to show for it as we entered the final ten minutes – classic Saints, really.

Then Manning happened. Ninety minutes on the clock, the crowd getting restless, and our left-back decided to channel his inner Gareth Bale with a strike that finally beat their inspired keeper. St Mary’s erupted like we’d just won the Champions League, which in fairness, it felt like we had after all that dominance without reward. But we weren’t done there – because apparently we’d been saving up all our goals for one glorious six-minute spell.

Jack Stephens, of all people, popped up in the 96th minute to seal the deal and send 30,970 Saints fans home happy. Two goals in the dying embers, after 90 minutes of wondering if we’d forgotten how to finish – it was peak Southampton in the best possible way. Sometimes the football gods do smile on us, even if they like to keep us waiting until our fingernails are completely bitten down to the quick.

Three points, a clean sheet eventually broken but a victory secured, and a reminder that patience really is a virtue in football. Now, can we possibly do this the easy way next time? Probably not – this is Southampton, after all.