But the visitors fought back in the second half, scoring six minutes into the second period to spark some hopes of a comeback for Cherries’ south coast neighbours. The hosts were able to hold Saints at bay, though, and that goal proved to be little more than a consolation. On what was said at half time, Elphick explained to the Daily Echo: “At half time we were just fully focused on the job that was at hand.
“It was a dangerous scoreline. We knew that Southampton would come out with a reaction. “They changed a lot of personnel, changed a lot of shape in the second half.
first half “It was a very different test to the first half, something that we'd been working on in training quite a bit, and I thought we weathered the storm really, really well.” The Cherries assistant coach said he was really pleased how the side responded to Saints’ fast start in the second period. “It was a completely different test, as I said, they changed a lot of personnel and they changed shape a lot of times in the second half, changed the structures, changed the formations, and it was quite hard to pin down,” Elphick said.
“Second half, we couldn't be quite as aggressive as we wanted to be and quite as attacking as we wanted to be. “We would rather see the game out in a different fashion, but sometimes needs must, and I thought we did really, really well to see that period out.”.
