Southampton won 3-0 against Blackburn, extending their unbeaten record to 18 games with seven consecutive wins and closing in on second place in the Championship by three points.
First-half goals from Cyle Larin and Ryan Manning, and a late goal from Cameron Archer, continued Saints’ incredible winning streak and left fans believing they could catch up with Ipswich, who are chasing automatic promotion.
With Southampton in the FA Cup semi-finals, the match was changed at late notice and only a handful of Rovers supporters made the long journey south from Lancashire on a humid midweek evening.
With the Saints having a busy fixture list, manager Tonda Eckert made five changes to the team that beat Derby 2-1 on Saturday, but without disrupting the club’s relentless rhythm of rushing up the standings.
The home side put pressure on from the start and Archer had the first shot, but his volley went just over the bar.
Larin, another substitute, forced a good save from Balazs Toss when he headed home James Bree’s corner.
With Blackburn struggling to get out of their own half, Saints’ Matsuki Hisatsu released Archer on the left in the 24th minute, who placed the ball perfectly for Larin to slot home.
Southampton showed no signs of slowing down and Shay Charles came close with a run and a shot, but it was deflected away by the toss.
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Cyle Larin scores Southampton’s first goal against Blackburn
Two minutes before halftime, Manning’s low shot was deflected by Yuri Ribeiro and past an ill-fated toss by Charles for the second goal.
The pattern remained largely unchanged after the break, with Eckert’s side continuing to dominate possession and territory, creating more chances.
Archer and Taylor Harwood-Bellis scored close goals as Michael O’Neill’s side struggled to cope with the pace of Southampton’s attack.
Matsuki missed a golden chance to add a third after some great play from Harwood-Bellis, leaving the goal to Larin, but the Japanese midfielder managed to force a shot over.
Brazilian keeper Leo Cienza came on for the final 20 minutes and posed a threat to a tiring Southampton attack, immediately twisting past Christy Montgomery but failing to break the toss at his near post.
Blackburn finally threatened in the final 10 minutes when Daniel Peretz parried Yuki Ohashi’s shot and Ryoya Morishita hit the rebound with the post.
Elsewhere, Saints were comfortable with Archer adding his third goal, but with a Wembley FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City and a crucial home league game against Ipswich still to come, a mouth-watering end to the season awaits.
managers
Tonda Eckert of Southampton:
“It’s always a test. You can never go into a game thinking it’s just going to fall on you and there’s no competition. We need to win every game and I think there are a lot of teams that don’t want to play us at the moment.
“I think whoever we have at the moment, they’re all ready to perform. It’s a very easy decision to pick the team at the moment because they’re all ready.”
“It’s always a combination of where we are, what the other team can give us and what type of quality we need on the pitch. I think today was a very easy decision.”
Michael O’Neill from Blackburn:
“We can’t control what other teams do. We control our own destiny.
“I said that after the Birmingham game and that’s all we’re focused on. We have to make sure we get something out of Friday’s game (at home to Coventry).
“Then we have an away game against Sheffield United and then a home game against Leicester.
“So we have to play to get nine points and we have to do everything possible to get as many points as possible.”
