Southampton were dealt a hammer blow in their pursuit of automatic promotion after dropping points at home to Middlesbrough this afternoon.
Southampton were seeking their third straight Championship win after securing victories over Birmingham City and Sunderland before the international break.
Russell Martin‘s men know that if they are to get automatic promotion, they can ill afford to drop points.
The Saints entered their clash against Middlesbrough nine points off the pace with two games in hand, meaning they couldn’t afford to drop any points this afternoon.
Sadly, Southampton were made to pay for missing guilt-edged opportunities to put the game to bed after Adam Armstrong initially put the hosts in front.
Che Adams was the main culprit, costing his side in front of goal by missing two big chances and racking up an xG of 0.97 without scoring.
Ultimately, those missed chances came back to bite them as Emmanuel Latte-Lath scored in the 90th minute to steal a point for the visitors.
Despite costing his team in front of goal, Martin came to the defence of Adams after the game.
“He will be frustrated he didn’t score but it happens, we are human beings. He was not the reason we don’t win, we should still defend properly,” he said.
It was ultimately a frustrating afternoon for the Saints, who are becoming used to dropping points at home after losing to Millwall and Hull City.
Daily Echo journalist George Rees-Julian summarised the result with a three-word statement: “A missed opportunity”, which was apt after Leicester dropped points against Bristol City at lunchtime.
Southampton’s automatic promotion hopes are almost over
After watching Leicester lose 1-0 to Bristol City, Southampton could have closed the gap between them and the automatic promotion places to just five points.
While boasting a game in hand over their rivals, the Saints could have piled the pressure on Leeds United and Ipswich Town.
But, as has often been the case this season, Southampton failed to kill off their opponent despite creating so many chances to do so and that is ultimately what will cost them.
Leicester may have dropped points this weekend, which would have given Martin’s men a glimmer of hope, but those hopes were diminished when Latte-Lath silenced the home crowd late on.
The issue that Southampton have is that Leeds and Ipswich show no signs of slowing down, and while they play Ipswich on Monday evening, failure to win that match would surely rule out their chances completely.