Southampton 3-2 Sheffield UnitedSaganowski 42, John 53, 69 | Quinn 23, Stead 65
Pat Symes at St Mary's Stadium
guardian.co.uk, Sunday May 4 2008
Southampton and Nigel Pearson added another dramatic survival to their rich history of final-day escapes by beating Sheffield United and clawing their way out of the Championship's relegation zone.
Southampton stayed up at the last gasp four times in the Premier League heyday of Matt Le Tissier before failing at the fifth attempt, and old habits die hard at St Mary's.
Pearson, Southampton's manager, has his own tale to tell having been in charge of Carlisle when their goalkeeper, Jimmy Glass, scored to save them from dropping out of the league but he was a little over 20 minutes away from heartbreak today.
After 65 minutes, as other scores stood, Southampton were heading for League One and two meetings next season with the likes of Hereford. After 69 minutes and Stern John's second goal, they were back in the mix. They survived the final nine minutes with 10 men after John was sent off for a second bookable offence.
"I could not bear to watch the last stages of the game and I hid away hoping the lads would hold on," said John. "I feel I let them down because I should never have got myself sent off."
Without his burly presence in attack and with three minutes added for stoppages, Southampton had to survive a barrage of Gary Speed-inspired Sheffield attacks, leaving only the tiny substitute Adam Lallana up front to make the best use of panic-driven clearances. Somehow they held out.
United went into the match still nursing play-off ambitions but the loss of the former Southampton striker James Beattie and the tough mainstay of their defence Chris Morgan was too much to overcome. They enjoyed long spells of dominance, not least those last tense few minutes, but John was always a problem.
The Trinidadian came to Southampton as a makeweight in the early-season deal that took Kenwyne Jones to Sunderland. Without his 19 goals, Southampton would surely have joined Colchester and Sc**thorpe as relegation certainties long ago.
John's contrition came as the result of a first offence of taking off his shirt to celebrate his opening goal and even then he only got a yellow card on the advice of the fourth official.
There was no doubt about his second yellow card for a clumsy late tackle on Derek Geary, leaving the referee no option but to proffer an almost apologetic red card. With Marek Saganowski already replaced, Southampton had no attacking outlet and a draw would still have left them in trouble.
Sheffield United were ahead in the 24th minute when a centre from the right by Billy Sharp found Stephen Quinn unmarked at the far post and with plenty of time to plant a firm header wide of the unprotected Richard Wright.
There were chances at both ends before a double incident in the 42nd minute proved to be a turning point. Matt Kilgallon had a fierce header blocked on the line by Wright and Southampton went straight up the other end for Saganowski to score his first goal since October 2.
John scored his first goal in the 54th minute, converting a pass from Saganowski, but United refused to lie down and accept the inevitable.
Jon Stead, on for the ineffective Rob Hulse, took eight minutes to make his mark, turning in a low centre from Luton Shelton on the right.
At that stage Southampton were going down, but four minutes later John turned sharply in the United area on to a pass from Jhon Viafara before scoring with a low right-foot shot.
Southampton's manager still fears for his job in a takeover planned for next week which will see the return as chairman of the controversial Rupert Lowe.
Pearson said: "I want to be here for the long haul but I am not naive and I know how football can work. Ultimately I want what is best for the club but I have no idea what will happen. At the moment my emotion is one of overriding relief.
"The worse part was before the match knowing that the whole situation was out of our hands. We were relying on others to slip up and there was not option but to win our game."
United's manager, Kevin Blackwell, admitted the task was always going to be difficult without important players. I think we gave a good account of ourselves and we were pressing for an equaliser deep into stoppage time. I have to be pleased with the effort but it is hard to take after such a long season."
Man of the match: Stern John (Southampton)
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