Bournemouth fans cheer as Southampton supporters learn their last train home is cancelled | Football

A flurry of first-half goals from Evanilson, Dango Ouattara and Antoine Semenyo gave hosts Bournemouth an imperious lead at the halfway stage at the Vitality Stadium.

There was a glimmer of hope for the newly promoted Saints as Taylor Harwood-Bellis reduced the deficit with a 51st-minute header, but that was as good as it got for the away side.

The 3-1 defeat leaves winless Southampton languishing down in 19th place, with Russell Martin’s men picking up just one point in six games on their return to the Premier League.

A small proportion of the visiting Southampton fans had already headed for the exit as the clock ticked over into stoppage time given the game was effectively over as a contest between the south-coast rivals.

Bournemouth fans had plenty to celebrate across the match but the loudest cheer of the evening arrived in the 92nd minute when it was announced over the tannoy that the last train to Southampton had been cancelled – presumably leaving many away supporters stranded.

‘The 11:15pm train back to Southampton has been cancelled,’ the stadium announcer confirmed to huge cheers around the 11,000-capacity venue, formerly known as Dean Court.

Martin felt his players were ‘soft’ in their approach but took responsibility for the manner of the loss.

‘It’s on me. I need to give them the tools to be able to respond to setbacks better than we did,’ he added.

‘We obviously haven’t learned from the Manchester United game and that’s a problem.

‘They made 20 fouls to our ten, or whatever it is. That sums up the whole game, we were soft.’

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