Report: Five-star Saints produce statement win at Wrexham

Five different scorers did the damage as Saints won 5-1 on their first visit to STōK Cae Ras since 1979, following up Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup heroics with a display arguably just as impressive in a game of great significance in the promotion race.

Saints raced into a two-goal lead inside 22 minutes, as Kuryu Matsuki and Flynn Downes added to their crucial recent strikes at Coventry, before Josh Windass pulled one back for the stunned hosts.

Wrexham pushed for an equaliser but Saints never looked back once Cyle Larin restored their two-goal cushion with a fine individual goal on the hour, before Ross Stewart and Finn Azaz completed the rout in the last 10 minutes, with Azaz getting in on the act after twice being denied by the woodwork.

Tonda Eckert made six changes to his Arsenal-conquering starting line-up on what was a night to remember at St Mary’s.

That included a new-look front three and midfield pairing, as Downes partnered FA Cup match-winner Shea Charles behind a trio of Matsuki, Samuel Edozie and Larin.

Cameron Bragg, Caspar Jander, Tom Fellows, Leo Scienza and Ross Stewart all dropped to the bench along with Nathan Wood, as skipper Jack Stephens also returned to the XI.

Shea Charles was back in the starting line-up after his FA Cup heroics off the bench against Arsenal

Saints should have been in front inside eight minutes, as Larin and Azaz both headed the ball against the crossbar in a remarkable passage of play.

Ryan Manning swung in a cross from the left that looked beyond Larin, but the Canadian miraculously craned his neck to nod the ball back across the stranded goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, who could only stand and watch.

It deserved a goal from Larin, but when the ball bounced down off the bar it looked inevitable that Azaz would follow up to score from two yards out, only for the Irishman to inexplicably head the ball against the same lick of paint.

Undeterred, Saints kept coming. Wrexham were powerless to prevent the dominance of the visitors, who deservedly grabbed the lead four minutes later.

Azaz made up for his earlier miss with the assist, biding his time on the edge of the penalty area before slipping a clever pass through the legs of Dominic Hyam for Matsuki, who still had work to do but did it superbly, negotiating a yard of space on his left foot and burying a low shot inside Okonkwo’s left-hand post, using his marker as a shield to unsight the keeper.

Kuryu Matsuki's low shot finds the net for his sixth goal of the season

Still Saints did not rest on their laurels, as Edozie fizzed a low ball across the six-yard box that went untouched.

The winger looks sturdier with the ball at his feet these days, and his upper-body strength allowed him to hold off Max Cleworth before drawing a foul from the defender, giving Saints a free-kick in an inviting crossing position wide on the left.

James Bree’s resulting delivery was disappointing, but when Wrexham failed to clear, the ball fell kindly for Downes, who neatly steered a low volley into the bottom corner from 15 yards to score his second goal in four games.

The hosts were shellshocked, but did serve Saints a reminder that there was a long way to go when Nathan Broadhead headed a deflected cross against the outside of Daniel Peretz’s right-hand post with the keeper beaten.

Two minutes later Saints’ lead was cut in two. It may well have been a foul by Kieffer Moore in the build-up, as the striker climbed all over Taylor Harwood-Bellis in getting his head to a long ball forward, glancing it on into the path of Windass.

Faced with Stephens in the box, Windass jinked on to his right foot and reversed a low shot back across Peretz to find the bottom corner in similar fashion to Matsuki’s early opener.

Flynn Downes doubles the lead with a controlled volleyed finish

Next it was Saints’ turn to replicate Wrexham, as Matsuki’s flick on found Larin bearing down on goal, holding off Hyam but unable to keep his shot down at the end of it.

The goal-hungry hosts had a taste for the back of the net now. Broadhead sent in a low cross well dealt with by Peretz, before Windass blazed high and wide in a game that looked far from finished in terms of the scoring as the half-time whistle sounded.

The second period felt rather more tepid in comparison, particularly in its early stages, but Charles had to be alert to track the run of Windass and make a vital interception before Larin was denied by Okonkwo, as the striker improvised superbly to shoot on the turn, only to find the keeper perfectly placed to make an instinctive save.

Wrexham might have levelled things up when Cleworth’s low shot took a wicked looping deflection off Manning that only just dropped wide, but Larin, substituted shortly after, got the goal his performance deserved with a fine solo effort.

Beating Hyam to a loose pass on the halfway line, Larin took off, racing away from the Wrexham defence and keeping his cool to beat Okonkwo with a ruthless right-footed finish to restore Saints’ two-goal cushion.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis (left) and Ross Stewart celebrate the striker's headed goal

With Scienza already introduced in place of Edozie, Welington and Stewart followed as Manning and Larin departed midway through the second half.

With three promotions on the spin and a fourth in their sights, Wrexham are a team that don’t know the meaning of a lost cause, and the hosts should really have set up a grandstand finish when Peretz uncharacteristically misjudged a cross from the right and Moore somehow failed to punish him, heading against the foot of the post with a miss to rival Azaz’s in the first half.

The woodwork was struck for the fifth time in the game by Azaz’s brilliant side-footed effort, a first-time shot from 25 yards that rattled Okonkwo’s right-hand post with the keeper at full stretch but unable to reach it.

But Saints would not be denied a fourth, as Stewart got in on the act with eight minutes left, heading Welington’s outswinging free-kick down into the ground and up into the corner of the net.

The travelling Saints fans must have thought they were dreaming, but things got even better when Azaz added his name to the scoresheet two minutes later.

Having twice hit the frame of the goal before that, the midfielder was in the right place when Okonkwo flapped at Scienza’s cross and Charles nodded the ball down for Azaz to tuck away the loose ball to complete a five-star showing and a statement victory on Welsh soil.

Wrexham: Okonkwo, Cleworth, Hyam (c), Doyle, Kaboré (Longman 72), O’Brien, Dobson (James 72), Thomason, Windass (Smith 84), Broadhead (Rathbone 72), Moore (Keillor-Dunn 84).

Unused substitutes: Ward, Scarr, Vyner, Cadamarteri.

Goals: Windass (34’).

Booked: Doyle, Longman.

Southampton: Peretz, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Manning (Welington 66), Downes, Charles, Matsuki (Wood 85), Azaz (Archer 85), Edozie (Scienza 57), Larin (Stewart 66).

Unused substitutes: Jones, Bragg, Jander, Fellows.

Goals: Matsuki (12’), Downes (22’), Larin (61’), Stewart (81’), Azaz (83’).

Booked: Stephens, Welington, Azaz.

Attendance: 10,547.

Referee: Gavin Ward.