A extra time winner from Sam Gallagher was enough to clinch the Premier League Cup for Southampton Under 21’s, as they defeated Blackburn Rovers Under 21s 2-1 in a tight final.
Harrison Reed was sent off for a second bookable offence late on in the second half after Ryan Seager had given Saints the lead, only for it to be cancelled out by an own goal from Matty Targett.
The game was perfectly poised at 0-0 going into the second leg and a huge attendance of 12,356 at St Marys spurred the young guns on to a deserved win after extra-time.
In the early stages it was the home side who carved out the first real opportunity of the match. Harrison Reed playing a wonderful diagonal pass to Jake Hesketh, only for his effort to be blocked by the Blackburn Rovers defence.
It wasn’t long before Blackburn began to fight back as Dean Rittenburg hung up a great cross for Lewis Mansell. His powerful headed effort forced Paolo Gazzaniga into action for the first time, to which he replied with an athletic stop.
Southampton enjoyed the lion's share of possession and were carving out real chances to take the lead. A heroic block from Rovers centre-half Sam Jones was the only thing standing between Dominic Gape and the opening goal.
The young Saints seemed to kick it up a gear as they began the second half the stronger of the two sides. Just three minutes after the restart Ryan Seager sent a speculative, curling effort inches past the Blackburn post, with many inside the ground sure it had hit the back of the net.
On the 51st minute though, Southampton did take the lead. Harrison Reed’s speculative effort deflected right into the path of the poaching Seager, who managed to toe poke his finish past Raya on the swivel.
The goal seemed to only spur the boys in red and white stripes on, with first team regular Targett combining with the ever busy Hesketh, who could only manage to put his effort over the bar.
On the 68th minute mark, and against the run of play, Blackburn managed to snatch an equaliser through a freak own goal off the head of Matty Targett. Following a somewhat simple ball in from midfielder Bradley Bauress, Targett seemed unsighted by his teammates in front of him as the ball deflected in past Paolo Gazzaniga in the Saints goal.
Targett was then agonisingly close to atoning for his error moments later as his free-kick struck the outside of the post. Things then got even worse for the home side as midfielder Harrison Reed was dismissed for a second bookable offence for a reckless challenge.
It took a mere three minutes into extra-time for the 10 men of Southampton to steal back the lead through a wonder strike from Sam Gallagher. He drove his effort from 20 yards past the helpless Raya in between the sticks and into the bottom left hand corner, much to the jubilation of the Saints faithful.
As the promise of Southampton’s youth set up shines through yet again, how long will it be before we see more of this exciting Under 21’s squad in Ronald Koeman’s starting XI?