Rothwell: Win shows our character
A quick-fire brace from Joe Rothwell shortly after coming off the bench helped Southampton to a 4-2 victory over Sunderland in the Sky Bet Championship.
Saints went into the break two goals to the good thanks to strikes from Stuart and Adam Armstrong, the latter notching is 18th of the season.
But two efforts from outside of the box from Romaine Mundle and Jobe Bellingham got the visiting Sunderland back on level terms, causing Russell Martin to look to his substitutes.
One of those was Rothwell, who scored first in the 77th minute and then the 80th to secure an important three points.
"I seem to be making a bit of a name for myself [getting two quick goals]," laughed the matchwinner. "Long may it continue, but I’m more than happy with anyone scoring as long as we’re winning the games. That’s all that matters. But it was nice to come on and grab a couple of goals.
"I think we were fully in control at 2-0, then came two sucker punches to get them back into the game and momentum was probably with them. Then I’ve come on and the gaffer said ‘we’ve gone with three, get yourself up the pitch and get yourself a goal’. Thankfully I managed to do that.
"It shows the character we’ve got in the group, bit of adversity in games happens and it’s about how you come through it. Thankfully today we managed to get the positive result after they came back into the game.
"This league is just crazy! The four teams that are up there are putting up numbers that probably will never be seen again. If one team slips up you know another will be there to take full advantage of that and obviously that happened today.
"It was part of what we said before, we’ve got a few thinks off now but we needed to go into it on a high with three points today. It’s maybe come at a good time after the amount of games we’ve had the past month, it gives the lad a chance to rest and recover. Then come back raring to go for the last ten games."
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