Hughes argues nobody will praise his team after Man Utd draw

Joe Williams
Mark Hughes Southampton

Southampton manager Mark Hughes was delighted with his side’s 2-2 draw against Man Utd, but claimed nobody will give his side credit for the result.

Saints raced into a 2-0 lead with only 20 minutes on the clock. Stuart Armstrong was given time and space on the edge of the area to pick out the bottom corner, before Cedric curled a free-kick into the top corner.

United came back into it and were level at half-time through Romelu Lukaku’s strike and a neat flick from Ander Herrera.

Hughes claimed the result came after several weeks of good performances. He said: “We have to view it as a positive, we have been playing well for a number of weeks.

“Unfortunately when you do not get the results people expect sometimes you don’t get the credit.

“We had opportunities to nip things in the bud, clear our lines and track runners – as a consequence they were able to get back into the game.

“Second-half we restricted United to a few free kicks, there was not a lot of momentum generated by United, that’s credit to us.

“Overall I am really pleased. It’s a positive point against a good team and we will build on that.”

Hughes remained rather blasé about Cedric’s thunderous free-kick, claiming he was worried when the right-back stepped up to take it.

“I was a bit worried!” said the Saints boss.

“He practices in training and his conversion rate isn’t as great as some others! But fair play to him.”