Soton v Wolves

[kennethlindheim]

George Burley will give late fitness tests to John Viafara and Grzegorz Rasiak before naming his team.

Viafara has been suffering from flu, while Rasiak has a rib injury. Chris Makin and Alexander Ostlund are available for selection.

But the hosts are still without the services of David Prutton, Djamel Belmadi, Darren Powell and Michael Svensson.

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy is likely to hand a debut to David Wheater for the trip to St Mary's.

Wheater is on loan from Middlesbrough and should start in central defence in the absence of the injured Jody Craddock.

Jay Bothroyd is unlikely to figure due to a shoulder injury, but fellow striker Jemal Johnson is back in the squad after being rested.

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?...onship+preview

[kennethlindheim]

Soton:
1 Kelvin Davis
19 Chris Makin
21 Chris Baird
5 Claus Lundekvam
22 Gareth Bale
10 Jermaine Wright
14 Inigo Idiakez
7 Rudolf Skacel
18 Nathan Dyer
8 Bradley Wright-Phillips
15 Kenwyne Jones

Subs
26 Kevin Miller
3 Pedro Pele
41 Adam Lallana
12 Mario Licka
29 Andrew Surman

Wolves:
20 Matt Murray
12 Rob Edwards
5 Gary Breen
32 David Wheater
11 Jamie Clapham
14 Darren Potter
8 Karl Henry
4 Seyi Olofinjana
28 Rohan Ricketts
9 Carl Cort
17 Leon Clarke

Subs
30 Carl Ikeme
26 Mark Little
22 Lewis Gobern
13 Jemal Johnson
18 Craig Davies

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Southampton 2 - 0 Wolverhampton

S: Wright-Phillips (39), Jones (70).

Attendence: 18979

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Southampton manager George Burley admitted it would be difficult to drop match-winning strike partners Bradley Wright-Phillips and Kenwyne Jones after they fired Saints out of a Championship slump.

In the absence of injured top scorer Grzegorz Rasiak, Wright-Phillips and Jones scored a goal in each half to condemn shot-shy Wolves to a fourth defeat on their travels without a goal.

Burley said: "They are both young lads and if they continue to play like that it will be hard to drop them.

"Bradley started the season ever so well but his confidence has dipped in the last few weeks and we've worked hard in getting it back and he showed tonight at 21 he has great potential.

"Kenwyne is 22 and is in only his third year as a professional. He may be not a crowd favourite but he is starting to win them over."

In a game fractured by a lack of opportunities for both sides Southampton, chasing only their second win in six league matches, started the stronger.

The burly Jones broke down the right and pulled the ball back for Jermaine Wright but his goalbound effort was blocked by Edwards. That sparked Wolves into life and Seyi Olofinjana's sharp one-two with Carl Cort almost gave the Nigerian a goalscoring opportunity but Chris Baird dived across to deny him.

Minutes later Cort, celebrating his 29th birthday, made a promising break through midfield but as he delayed his pass to Leon Clarke the move broke down and degenerated into Olofinjana blasting hopelessly over the crossbar.

And seemingly out of nothing the opener was created by the individual brilliance of Wright-Phillips.

The former Manchester City trainee seemed to have run out of ideas as he miscontrolled Inigo Idiakez's pass but with one touch he brought the ball down.

A dip of the shoulder then took him past Wolves captain, ex-Sunderland Gary Breen and with all the composure of his dad Ian stroked the ball around Matt Murray into the corner of the net. It was Wright-Phillips' first league goal since the opening day of the season after his £750,000 move from Eastlands in the summer.

Somehow the second half proved even less inspiring than the first as Wolves failed to register a single shot on target. Manager Mick McCarthy was visibly frustrated on the touchline as he berated his players for not using the lively Rohan Ricketts enough on the wing.

Things were soon to get worse for the former Sunderland and Republic of Ireland manager as a long punt upfield saw Jones wrestle with England Under-19 international Dave Wheater.

After appearing to use his hands to out-muscle the ball past the Wolves defender the Trinidad and Tobago striker produced a powerful finish from inside the penalty area to finish off the game.

McCarthy said: "That was the first game all season where we haven't created anything.

"We kept trying to pass the ball through the middle rather than get it out wide and credit to them they had a back four that seemed to want the game more than we did."

Source: http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk