Damion Downs enjoyed a winning debut for English Football League Championship side Southampton.
Downs came off the bench and was credited the winning assist in Saints’ 2-1 comeback home victory over Wrexham on Saturday. It marked the 21-year-old’s first goal contribution for the club in competitive action.
Josh Windass’ 22nd minute penalty kick propelled Wrexham in front 1-0 at St. Mary’s Stadium, a lead that would stay intact until the dying moments of the match.
Ryan Manning’s equalizing free kick in the 90th minute made it 1-1 for Saints before Jack Stephens’ go-ahead goal in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time propelled Will Still’s squad in front for good.
Downs’ redirection on Manning’s cross eventually fell to Stephens, who hammered home the loose ball.
Southampton would hang on for three points in its league opener while Wrexham succumbed to its first defeat of the new season.
Downs will now aim to make his first club start on Tuesday when Southampton travels to Northampton Town in EFL Cup play.
i watched that game whistle to whistle and it wasn’t immediately clear if it was a dummy or a slight touch. so take the assist with a grain of salt IMO. he generally wasn’t very involved but his height seemed to attract a wrexham CB double team which seemed to open things for saints’ second half attack.
but then they were kind of wasteful in general. dude said at half it could have been 2-1 or 3-1 wrexham, but it could have been about 3 for saints by half and about 6 overall. 2 sufficed. wrexham needs some guys who will tackle. i have been surprised team hollywood hasn’t done any american shopping, not even age groupers like san diego is picking up.
i also don’t get being in a fairly high line with a 5 back formation and almost no time left. the two tactics strike me as at counter purposes. 5 backs is sit so far back in bulk they can’t go over or around you. sheer clogging. but they are up so far instead of the backs set up deep, turned and facing that long ball to head it out, everyone ends up beat and chasing the play. how do you do that with 5 backs in the 96′??????
I watched the first 25 and then the 2nd half after Downs came in. They really did a decent job of keeping their shape and making it tough to get the ball behind the backline until that last play. I think the Saints were able to get the ball behind the backline once to Downs in 30 minutes. I think Longman the RWB is just ball watching and has no idea theirs another man outside the guy heâs marking. They all just lost the Southampton LWB. The LCB for Wrexham has stepped forward I guess because he thinks the CB is going to play the ball on the ground to the #10 and just can never get back to cover the far post. They just switched off in the 96th minute. Southampton had a 4.14 xG but almost all of that was in the last 5 minutes of both halves. When you give up that much possession youâre likely to tire by the end of a half. They escaped in the first half with some help from the post but got punished in the second. Wrexham doesnât have the skilled players to out posses a team like Southampton but theyâve got to be able to hold more than 20% in a half.
Thatâs what I meant by a strikerâs assist seemed to be trying to touch it in and mostly missed but it bounced right to his teammate. 6 touches in 37 minutes is not very good but some of that is probably not having a lot of time with his teammates yet.
maybe, i dunno. my impression was he had a target striker’s type instinct to make the back post run away from the ball between backs looking for aerial service as opposed to showing to ball. and then wrexham was bracketing him so he basically disappeared.
but sometimes all that focus opens up channels for the others.
i was on more to watch wrexham and it was “wait, didn’t saints just sign…..” so we’ll see how that turns out.
i do think downs is more technical than agyemang.
Well he probably scored but yes a true strikers mis touch turns into an assist. Good to see him getting involved.
A true strikerâs assist.
A true Yanks Abroad striker’s assist.
Which is a better American Abroad Striker moment accidentally directing to your teammate when your a yard from an empty net or scoring a goal off your butt turning to protect yourself from a goal kick?