Wolverhampton Wanderers beat bottom side Southampton 2-1 at St Mary's on Saturday as the visitors took a giant step towards Premier League survival thanks to a clinical double from Jorgen Strand Larsen.
A nervy 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 as they walked off to loud boosfrom the home support.
Three points on the road 😍 pic.twitter.com/rQ51s0jV2F
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 15, 2025
"We want to play good football. We had moments in the game where we played good football and we had (chances) to score the third goal," Wolves boss Vitor Pereira told the BBC.
"If we had, the last 10 minutes would have been different. In 30 seconds, they scored their first goal. For a team that wants the three points, it was time to suffer together, be compact, defend and get the three points."
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.
STRAND LARSEN DOUBLE
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 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.
"It's difficult scoring my first goal in front of the (home) fans and we're losing. It's not good enough and we need to do better as a team and individually," Onuachu said.
"We had a good start in the first 20 minutes but it's difficult to explain this loss... we had the feeling we were going to beat Wolves. You could see we were the better team, even though we lost."