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Goals have been like buses for Charlie Austin – after waiting ages for one, three have come along almost at once.
Austin, unusually for him, had gone nine, injury-disrupted months without scoring before Thursday for Southampton.
But he made it three goals in just four days by adding the winner against Swansea to his two goals against Sparta Prague.
Austin might have expected his Europa League double to be enough to earn him a place in the starting line-up against Swansea.
But Saints boss Claude Puel kept him hungry on the bench and his decision looked a masterstroke after Austin bounced back from missing a sitter to bag the winner 10 minutes after coming on.
And Puel surely owes Austin a more regular starting place. His strikes against Sparta helped earn Puel his first win as Saints boss and yesterday he ensured his new boss broke his Premier League duck.
Austin said: “I should have had three. I’m frustrated, of course, to be on the bench as I scored twice in midweek but if the manager wants to rotate then he is the boss. We have a strong squad.”
His second-half winner also spared the officials a potential ear-bashing from the usually softly-spoken Puel.
Having seen three Premier League penalties given against his side this season, Shane Long was harshly booked for diving to try to win one and the Irishman then had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside.
Southampton should have run out comfortable winners even with those debatable decisions going against them.
They could have been out of sight by half-time. The offside flag spared Steven Davis and Dusan Tadic embarrassment after they got in each other’s way and combined to miss an open goal after Lukasz Fabianski fumbled Long’s tame shot.
Davis, Tadic and Virgil van Dijk went close before Long was booked by referee Mike Jones rather than awarded a spot-kick after he went over Federico Fernandez’s rash challenge.
The chances kept coming after the break. Kyle Naughton’s last-ditch clearance denied Tadic a tap-in before Long’s goal was chalked off when Nathan Redmond was wrongly called offside.
Oriol Romeu headed a Tadic corner over when it seemed simpler to score.
Ronald Koeman never took a risk at Southampton, claims midfielder Oriol Romeu
And the same was the case when Austin, who replaced Long, hit the bar from five yards from Redmond’s low cross.
But a minute later Austin controlled Tadic’s deflected cross and slammed the ball past Fabianski to finally put Southampton ahead.
How toothless Swansea must only wish they had someone who could offer them similar cutting edge.
Fernando Llorente toiled up front with little reward and was ineffective after missing his one chance in the first half, prompting Swansea fans to urge boss Francesco Guidolin to ‘bring on the Baston.’
Club record signing, £15.5million Borja Baston, did eventually come on but his arrival came too late though Fraser Forster did need every inch of his 6ft 7in frame to tip away Gylfi Sigurdsson’s scuffed effort and deny Swansea a late equaliser.
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