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09th May 2018

“The man of the match… is not you” – Charlie Austin pays price for counting chickens

The striker saw the funny side of it

Darragh Murphy

Charlie Austin was sure he’d added another Man of the Match award to his collection.

To be fair, Sky Sports’ touchline reporter Patrick Davison did make it sound like the Southampton striker had been given the honour after the Saints’ crucial 1-0 victory over Swansea on Tuesday night which all but secured their Premier League status.

A brave substitution from Mark Hughes to send on Manolo Gabbiadini proved vital as the Italian forward bundled the ball over the line with 20 minutes remaining to make the final fixture a lot less stressful.

Austin had a solid game up front for the visitors but goalkeeper Alex McCarthy was the difference as he came up with some incredible reflex saves to keep Swansea out.

“I’ve been relegated before in my career, with QPR, and it’s a sad, sad feeling,” Austin said after the game.

“But the group of players we’ve had here, while we haven’t performed, since the gaffer’s come in, he’s certainly turned it around and inserted some big belief into the team. You saw that with the celebrations at the end.

“It’s massive for us, I think. A club like Southampton shouldn’t really be down at the bottom of the table.”

It was then that the post-match interviewer handed over the Man of the Match award but did so by getting Austin’s hopes up.

“The man of the match… is not you.”

https://twitter.com/CosmoKhan7/status/993957649564815361

Viewers certainly got a kick out of the misunderstanding.

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