Leeds 1 Southampton 1: Hosts hold on to take vital point in race for Premier League survival after Ward-Prowse equaliser

JAMES WARD-PROWSE continued his one-man mission to dethrone David Beckham as the Premier League’s free-kick king. 

Southampton’s set-piece specialist was at it again to rescue a point as the Saints stalled Leeds’ bid for safety.

It’s almost 20 years since he last played in this country, but Golden Balls still leads the way with 18 Premier League goals direct from free-kicks.

That impressive record might not last forever with Ward-Prowse hot on his heels after slamming home his 13th – which certainly proved unlucky for Jesse Marsch’s men, who had led through Jack Harrison’s first-half strike.

There was a sense of the inevitable after Leeds full-back Luke Ayling unwisely brought down Kyle Walker-Peters 25 yards from goal four minutes into the second-half.

England midfielder Ward-Prowse promptly did the rest, stepping up to curl an unstoppable effort over a six-man wall and into the top corner despite keeper Illan Meslier getting his fingertips to the ball.

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It was no-less than Southampton deserved after weathering an early Leeds storm to stem a four-game losing streak to head south with a point to strengthen their bid for a top-half finish.

Ward-Prowse’s latest set-piece stunner prevented the Yorkshire side from posting their best run for 11 months, but it still looking more than likely there’ll be a third straight season of top flight football at Elland Road.

Marsch’s men are 10 points shy of the traditional 40-point safety mark, but the bar to steer clear of danger this season looks likely to be set far lower. With seven games left, the eight-point gap to third-bottom Watford already looks more than enough to secure safety.

Leeds should have been out of sight long before Harrison pounced from close range to bag his eighth goal of the season after half an hour.

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The deadlock-breaking effort owed much to the persistence of Raphinha, who worked hard to get the better of Walker-Peters before standing up an inviting centre which keeper Fraser Forster could only parry into the path of Harrison to stab home from six yards.

Unmarked defender Diego Llorente set the tone for some wayward first-half finishing by heading Harrison’s corner wide from close range.

Raphinha couldn’t get out of the way of a goal-bound 18-yarder from Mateusz Klich, and it took a good save from Forster to prevent Dan James rounding off a slick length-of the-pitch four-man move.

Harrison finally found the net, but his effort was ruled out for pushing by Rodrigo after Raphinha’s corner came back off a post.

The frustration didn’t last much longer as the former Manchester City winger grabbed his second goal in as many games with a finish made easy by some woeful handling Forster will not want to look back on.

Southampton recovered from a torrid start to carve out two clear-cut chances either side of Harrison’s strike on a busy first appearance since December for Leeds skipper Liam Cooper.

Mohamed Elyounoussi should have done better when he shot straight at Illan Meslier from an inviting Che Adams knockdown. Adams was a constant threat, and only a brilliant save low to his left from Meslier prevented the Scotland striker levelling with a neat shot on the turn.

Ward-Prowse had them level soon after the re-start in the Saints’ best spell, but Leeds roared back after throwing fit-again England midfielder Kalvin Phillips on for the final 25 minutes.

They had two late penalty claims when Raphinha and then sub Joe Gelhardt went down theatrically in the box – but both were waved away by well-positioned referee Anthony Taylor.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk