{"id":12527,"date":"2026-04-09T12:05:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12527"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:05:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:05:21","slug":"wrexham-1-5-southampton-saints-leapfrog-red-dragons-into-sixth-with-thumping-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12527","title":{"rendered":"Wrexham 1-5 Southampton: Saints leapfrog Red Dragons into sixth with thumping win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Saints &#8211; showing six changes from their memorable 2-1 FA Cup quarter-final win over Arsenal three days earlier &#8211; showed no signs of a hangover early on in north Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They were twice thwarted by the framework of the Wrexham goal in a matter of seconds as Larin headed Ryan Manning&#8217;s delivery on to the crossbar, with Azaz nodding the rebound against the bar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But they were not to be denied four minutes later as Azaz picked out Matsuki, who drilled into the bottom corner to beat Arthur Okonkwo at the goalkeeper&#8217;s near post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Saints&#8217; attacking intent was rewarded again just 10 minutes later as James Bree&#8217;s free-kick deflected off George Dobson and looped into the path of Downes, whose sweetly-struck volley from 15 yards out flew into the net.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The hosts looked shell-shocked as the travelling Southampton supporters revelled in their side&#8217;s dominance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wrexham finally showed signs of life in attack after the half-hour mark. They almost reduced the Saints&#8217; lead when Max Cleworth&#8217;s cross found Nathan Broadhead, whose glancing header struck the post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They did pull a goal back a minute later as Okonkwo&#8217;s long punt upfield was flicked on by Kieffer Moore, and Windass showed great composure to slot beyond Daniel Peretz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The second half was a far more even affair &#8211; with Okonkwo doing enough to keep out Larin&#8217;s shot, before Cleworth&#8217;s deflected strike sailed wide at the other end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But just as Wrexham&#8217;s momentum was growing, Larin intercepted Lewis O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s pass before charging down on goal and firing beyond Okonkwo. The strike was Larin&#8217;s fifth goal since joining on loan from Mallorca on transfer deadline day in February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The hosts refused to let their heads drop and Moore headed Issa Kabore&#8217;s cross on to the base of the post from close range soon after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The visitors managed to take the sting out of the contest though, and after Azaz rifled against the post, Stewart headed fellow substitute Welington&#8217;s free-kick into the net.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Just two minutes later, Azaz capitalised on a defensive mix-up to put the gloss on his side&#8217;s stellar showing, as Tonda Eckert&#8217;s men stretched their unbeaten league run to 13 league games in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Saints &#8211; showing six changes from their memorable 2-1 FA Cup quarter-final win over Arsenal three days earlier &#8211; showed no signs of a hangover early on in north Wales. They were twice thwarted by the framework of the Wrexham goal in a matter of seconds as Larin headed Ryan Manning&#8217;s delivery on to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}