Southampton progress past Town in the Emirates FA Cup.
Shrewsbury Town's Emirates FA Cup adventure came to an end with Southampton emerging with a 2-0 third round victory over Salop.
Despite holding the home side to one goal for the majority of the match, the Saints doubled the lead late on as Town excit the competition.
Town were competing well in the early stages of the fixture and offered continual threats going forward when on the ball. Debutant Harry Chapman managed to get the first shot on goal for Town but his curling effort was well claimed by Fraser Forster.
Dan N’Lundulu had the first real chance for the Saints and he made Town pay. The forward found space inside the box and struck an effort into the bottom left corner of Matija Sarkic’s net to give the home side the lead early on.
Shaun Whalley forced a good save from the Southampton man in the sticks with a curling effort just after the 30-minute mark but the Assistant Referee raised the flag for offside.
Town came out for the second-half determined to make like hard for the Saints. The Shrews defence kept compact and limited the home side to early crosses and long-range shots – efforts that didn’t challenge Town’s shot-stopper.
Aaron Pierre was called into action in the 66th minute when Southampton did get a shot on goal. The defender rushed towards the goal line and managed to hook a ball away from being a certain goal.
Pierre managed to stop another certain goal going against Town in the dying moments of the game. Che Adams was through on goal and managed to dribble around Sarkic. Pierre intelligently covered the goal and block the shot from going in.
Southampton were awarded a free-kick moments later and Ward-Prowse stepped up to double the lead. Sarkic got a touch on the ball but the pace of the shot helped the effort bundle across the line.
The game came to an end with the Saints progressing into the next round of the competition.
The teams:
Saints: Fraser Forster, Yan Valery, Jan Bednarek, Jack Stephens, Jake Vokins, Ibrahima Diallo (Ryan Finnigan, 92), Jamea Ward-Prowse, Kegs Chauke (Stuart Armstrong, 79), Caleb Watts (Alexandre Jankewitz, 85), Shane Long (Che Adams, 79), Dan N'Lundulu.
Subs: Allan Tchaptchet, Stuart Armstrong, Kyle Walker-Peters, Ryan Bertrand, Will Ferry, Harry Lewis, Che Adams, Ryan Finnigan, Alexandre Jankewitz.
Salop: Matija Sarkic, Ro-Shaun Williams, Aaron Pierre, Ethan Ebanks-Landell, Matthew Pennington (Jason Cummings, 85), Scott Golbourne (Ryan Sears, 73), Josh Vela, Ollie Norburn (David Edwards, 73), Shaun Whalley, Dan Udoh (Rekeil Pyke, 73), Harry Chapman (Shilow Tracey, 64).
Referee: Graham Scott
Assistants: Peter Kirkup & Steven Meredith
Fourth Official: Darren England
