Tom O’Connor scored a wonderful free kick to help the Saints U23s reach the Premier League 2 playoff final.
Southampton – their first team anyway – may not have had the best of weekends, losing 3-0 away at West Ham United on Saturday, but the Saints fans can certainly rejoice in what the Under-23s did the day before.
Radhi Jaidi’s charges booked their place in the Premier League 2 playoff final after a 2-0 victory over their Aston Villa counterparts at St Mary’s Stadium and will now get to host Newcastle United next week for a place in Division One.
The hosts headed into the contest after wrapping up their regular season with a 5-1 hammering of Sunderland on Monday and opened the scoring against Villa after just seven minutes when Tyreke Johnson was brought down in the box and Will Smallbone stepped up to convert the ensuing penalty.
Midway through the second half, U23s captain Tom O’Connor stepped up to take a free kick and duly curled a sensational ball beyond the wall and into the top corner of the Villa net.
Southampton shared footage of the goal on their Twitter account, spliced with footage of Gary Lineker and Rio Ferdinand celebrating wildly in the BT Sport studio to Lionel Messi’s free kick from the Liverpool Champions League game:
And Bayer Leverkusen – who are known on Twitter for their light-hearted tweets – sent a reply:
Some Southampton fans went on to have their say on the platform:
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