Matheus Franca scored his first goal in English football to earn a point for Crystal Palace from a 1-1 draw with bottom-of-the-table Southampton.
The 21-year-old – who had not played a Premier League game since March 2024 due to injury – was introduced with just under 15 minutes to play at St Mary’s and headed in a Jefferson Lerma cross to score the decisive equaliser after 92 minutes.
Until that point, Paul Onuachu’s first-half header had looked to have secured a first league win since November 2 for Saints, who remain 19 points from safety with just eight games left to play this season.
They could now be relegated as early as Sunday if they lose to Spurs and Wolves beat Ipswich.
One small consolation for Ivan Juric’s side, however, is that they avoided becoming only the third team in top flight history to lose 10 home games in succession.
Southampton are seemingly resigned to their fate; Juric has said it himself. “We will go down, but [we want to go down] with more fight, more dignity and more everything,” he said after the 2-1 defeat to Wolves before the March international break.
As a result, he employed a gung-ho approach from the off at St Mary’s – but it almost backfired immediately. Some slack defending allowed Jean-Philippe Mateta the freedom of the south coast to pick his spot from 20 yards and crash a shot back off the underside of the crossbar, with Aaron Ramsdale beaten.
The hosts did not go back into their shells, however, and took a surprise lead 20 minutes in, when Flynn Downes and Mateus Fernandes linked up brilliantly, before the latter delivered a cross that Onuachu powered into the bottom corner.
He later spurned two decent chances to extend the lead, but not before Mateta drew a sharp low save from Ramsdale after a sumptuous control and exquisite shot on the turn.
Oliver Glasner made three changes just before the hour, but Ben Chiwell, Daichi Kamada and Eddie Nketiah did not spark his side into action. For long periods, they looked a shadow of the side that beat Fulham at the weekend to book a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
By the 90th minute, the prospect of surpassing Derby’s record was within touching distance for Saints, but, perhaps naively, they still wanted to add another, just to make sure. It was symptomatic of their miserable season to date that they would concede again.
And that’s exactly what happened, as Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ headed clearance returned the ball to Lerma, who picked out Franca to head home and break Southampton hearts all over again.
Juric: We deserved to win – I’m really sorry we didn’t
Southampton manager Ivan Juric:
“I’m very proud of the way we played today and very disappointed we didn’t get the win because we did almost everything good.
“I’m really sorry for the fans and the guys that they didn’t win because I think they deserved it.
“It was just a moment. I kept feeling we were in control of the game, that we don’t risk anything. They didn’t create anything or were dangerous.
“I had a really good feeling and then they were good in the moment, they were good in the cross and other things. I think the players made a step forward. I had a very good feeling we could compete today.
“We gain one point, we have to prepare well the next game and if we play like this every game we will gain the points. We just have to find a way to perform on Sunday to make the fans happy and to try to do our best.”
Glasner admits FA Cup win at Fulham took its toll
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner:
“It’s a very good point, especially how the game was. It was tough, I think everyone could see it.
“You could see we were not at our top level. I think we were mentally tired after the big win at Fulham.
“It’s nothing to do with tired physically, we were fresh but we were mentally tired.
“We missed a little bit but I am really pleased with the point today and proud of the group because they felt it as well.
“A symbol of this game was a free-kick from Eberechi Eze when he kicked the ball into the stand and I think many teams wouldn’t have come back but this group of players came together and pushed each other on the pitch.
“So I am really pleased about this spirit, about this togetherness. And today it was more about fighting for this point. And that’s why I’m really pleased.
“We have to stay humble, we can’t go everywhere and take it for granted we will get the win.”
