Southampton 4-1 Bristol City: Cyle Larin scores twice in Saints win

Larin scored in either half, with late goals from Kuryu Matsuki and Finn Azaz after Lorent Tolaj had pulled one back for visitors City.

The Saints are formidable opposition at St Mary's and have not lost on their own patch since January but recent results against the Robins had not gone in their favour.

They had won just one of the last eight meetings between the two.

Michael Skubala's Robins had already scored five set-piece goals and came close to another as early as the second minute when Tolaj latched on to a loose ball from a free-kick but could not beat Daniel Peretz.

Five minutes later, City captain Jason Knight forced Peretz into a fine save following a corner after Larin's headed clearance had fallen to him on the edge of the penalty area.

The away side were dominating the early stages and former Saint Dom Ballard almost scored after latching onto a long ball from Joe Williams and lobbing it over Peretz, only for Keven Schlotterbeck to clear acrobatically off the line.

Unlike Southampton, City had not had a midweek fixture and were looking the fresher of the two sides.

But Saints had their first chance on 19 minutes when Larin failed to convert James Bree's low cross from close range.

In the next minute, a surging run from Leo Scienza set up a chance for Matsuki to shoot but Sam Tickle was able to beat away his fierce effort at the near post.

With Saints a man down after Scienza had limped off for treatment following a clash with George Tanner, Tonda Eckert's men took an unlikely lead.

Azaz wriggled through a gap to find Larin and the Canadian superbly glided past two challenges before curling deftly into the top right corner.

City continued to pose problems and their final chance of the half came when Rio Cardines crossed to Ballard but the forward directed his header just past the far post.

Free-scoring Larin got Saints the goal they desperately needed on the hour mark when he pounced on a loose ball after Tanner had blocked James Ward-Prowse's initial effort, following brilliant work from Scienza.

City pulled one back five minutes later when Nathan Wood's headed clearance dropped to Cardines and he volleyed back into the area with Tolaj diverting it low into the corner.

The subsequent nervy spell around St Mary's ended when Matsuki fired a superb effort into the bottom right-hand corner following another clever pass from Azaz.

Azaz then got the goal his performance deserved, slotting past Tickle after being teed up by Divin Mubama.

"It wasn't an easy start to the game and then I've decided at half-time that it's probably not the day where we can go after them.

"Sometimes you have to accept maybe you have to defend a little bit more, that you don't touch the ball as often. And then you need to use those moments when you go forward. I think the win today belongs to the players, because they have left everything on the pitch.

"It just comes down to the mindset you have, to the togetherness as a group, how you grind out those games, especially if it's been a long block now, physically and mentally.

"I think you could just see from the very first minute today that there was a team on the pitch that played midweek against Swansea and had to run a lot, the most that we've had to run all season, and a team on the pitch that had a whole week to prepare."

"The scoreline overshadows it and probably flatters them a little bit. I thought we more than matched them in the first half and were the better team.

"I was looking at the game, at their goal. We created chances and to come here and I think we should have scored two at least.

"But that's football. The back end of the game where we opened up too much was the frustrating bit because the scoreline frustrates us. But when we look at that performance, and I will, I think it'll probably be a good performance."

What the result means and next fixtures...