Wolverhampton Wanderers beat bottom side Southampton 2-1 at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday as the visitors took a giant step towards Premier League survival thanks to a double from Jorgen Strand Larsen.
Anervy victory after Southampton pulled a goal back in the 75th minute moved Wolves, 17th, nine points clear of 18th-placed Ipswich Town who lost 4-2 to Nottingham Forest.
Meanwhile, Southampton look destined for the drop with the south-coast club still on nine points after 29 games after a ninth straight defeat at home.
Ivan Juric’s Southampton started brightly and could have taken the lead in the sixth minute when Yukinari Sugawara crossed the ball into a dangerous area but Kamaldeen Sulemana failed to tap the ball in as Wolves cleared.
The hosts continued to carve open Wolves’ defence with some crisp passing but they lacked the finishing touch and it was the away side that opened the scoring against the run of play with their first shot on target.
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde floated in a cross towards the penalty spot where Strand Larsen beat his marker and flicked a header past Saints keeper Aaron Ramsdale to find the bottom corner.
Southampton had more opportunities in the first half but failed to find the target and Wolves punished them with their second goal two minutes after the restart.
Once again it was Bellegarde who found Strand Larsen outside the box and this time the Norwegian forward found space and pulled the trigger to find the bottom-left corner.
The crowd at St Mary’s were not impressed and immediately began booing their team.
With a two-goal cushion, Wolves took their foot off the gas – but not before Bellegarde wasted an opportunity after a sizzling solo run from deep in his own half.
Southampton showed some fight but they were denied time and again by an alert Wolves backline while goalkeeper Jose Sa also made two crucial saves within a minute.
Wolves threw away a chance to make it 3-0 on a counter-attack in the 74th minute and Southampton immediately went up the other end where Tyler Dibling’s shot came off the post and Paul Onuachu followed up to fire in the rebound.
But Vitor Pereira’s Wolves held on to their slender lead to take all three points as the fans in the away end chanted the Portuguese manager’s name.
