{"id":13018,"date":"2017-05-13T21:20:17","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T21:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/2017\/05\/13\/middlesbrough-1-2-southampton-rodriguez-redmond-strike-to-seal-relegation-for-boro\/"},"modified":"2017-05-13T21:20:17","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T21:20:17","slug":"middlesbrough-1-2-southampton-rodriguez-redmond-strike-to-seal-relegation-for-boro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/?p=13018","title":{"rendered":"Middlesbrough 1-2 Southampton: Rodriguez & Redmond Strike to Seal Relegation for Boro"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Strikes on either side of half-time\u00a0from Jay\u00a0Rodriguez and\u00a0Nathan Redmond secured victory for Southampton at the Riverside, despite a penalty miss from Shane Long and\u00a0rare goal from Patrick Bamford for the home side.<\/inline><\/p>\n

The Saints broke their four game scoring drought to inflict\u00a0Middlesbrough’s nineteenth loss of the season as Boro said farewell to\u00a0Premier League football on Teesside<\/inline>\u00a0following their relegation.<\/inline><\/p>\n

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\"Middlesbrough<\/div>\n

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Middlesbrough looked bright in the opening minutes of the game, despite\u00a0confirmation of their relegation only five days earlier, as\u00a0Bamford had\u00a0an opportunity in the middle of the box\u00a0only moments after the first minute which required a desperate intervention from the Saints defence to deny the 23-year-old a shot on goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The visitors settled into the game slowly –\u00a0likely to\u00a0be attributed to the seven changes made in the Saints starting lineup\u00a0– as\u00a0the half<\/inline> settled with little to peak the interests of either the home or away supporters.<\/inline><\/p>\n

Glimpses of scoring <\/inline>opportunities\u00a0arose for both sides\u00a0but all efforts\u00a0failed to trouble either goalkeeper and with the game crying out for a flash of brilliance, Long and Rodriguez\u00a0duly obliged for the visitors.<\/inline><\/inline><\/p>\n


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The 30-year-old’s run in-behind the defence\u00a0on the right-hand side resulted in a brilliant cross\u00a0from the by-line into the penalty spot, where Rodriguez was waiting to pounce as he\u00a0<\/inline>coolly<\/inline>\u00a0slotted the ball into the back of the net just before the half-time interval. The Saints first goal in four games.\u00a0<\/inline>
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A scrappy start to the second-half ensued as both sides failed to successfully maintain possession.<\/p>\n

The first chance once again came to Bamford in the middle of the box\u00a0who slashed the ball over the bar which highlighted the lack of clinical edge in the final third which has plagued\u00a0the home side throughout their entire campaign.<\/inline><\/p>\n

Moments later S<\/inline>outhampton took advantage of Boro’s inability to score as they\u00a0doubled their lead when\u00a0<\/inline>Redmond was\u00a0<\/inline>left completely unmarked on the left-hand side as he weaved into the <\/inline>penalty<\/inline>\u00a0box, out-footed his opponent and slammed the ball<\/inline> into the top right corner of the goal.\u00a0<\/inline><\/p>\n

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#Boro fans chan “off, off, off” urging referee Anthony Taylor to send off Brad Guzan… their own goalkeeper<\/p>\n

\u2014 Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) May 13, 2017<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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With frustration in the air at the Riverside, the Saints were given a golden opportunity moments later\u00a0to seal the game when Brad\u00a0Guzan needlessly came out of goal to close down Long, but the American caught the Saints attacker and\u00a0the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.\u00a0<\/inline><\/p>\n

However, Long’s penalty is one he will not look back on with fondness as he skyrocketed the ball over the bar much to the elation of the home fans.\u00a0<\/inline>\u00a0<\/inline><\/p>\n

The good feeling continued for Middlesbrough when Bamford made his next opportunity stick – his first goal\u00a0in 33 games – as his header from a Viktor Fischer corner left Fraser<\/inline>\u00a0Forster with no opportunity to make a save.\u00a0<\/inline><\/p>\n


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A rare moment to celebrate for Middlesbrough gave the home supporters something to smile about as their\u00a0time in the Premier League at the Riverside came\u00a0to an end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the late resurgence and press for an equaliser\u00a0the loss keeps Boro on 28 points which is behind their lowest ever point tally in a season (29) which gives them something to fight for as they look to\u00a0prevent a new unwanted record at the club\u00a0<\/inline>when they make<\/inline>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/inline>trip to Anfield next week in the final game of the season.<\/inline><\/p>\n

The victory solidifies\u00a0Southampton’s sport\u00a0in the top half of the table with two matches still remaining in the season against Manchester United and Stoke City.\u00a0<\/p>\n


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??<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strikes on either side of half-time\u00a0from Jay\u00a0Rodriguez and\u00a0Nathan Redmond secured victory for Southampton at the Riverside, despite a penalty miss from Shane Long and\u00a0rare goal from Patrick Bamford for the home side. The Saints broke their four game scoring drought to inflict\u00a0Middlesbrough’s nineteenth loss of the season as Boro said farewell to\u00a0Premier League football on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-southampton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.violetsport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}