Photo via Sky Sports

Larin nets twice as Saints ease past Bristol City

Southampton extended their home unbeaten streak stretching back to January with a 4-1 Championship triumph against Bristol City, reversing a poor run of only one victory in their prior eight encounters with the Robins. The visiting side pushed hard in the opening stages, seeing early chances from Lorent Tolaj and skipper Jason Knight denied by Daniel Peretz, before Keven Schlotterbeck performed an acrobatic goal-line stop to thwart Dom Ballard's lobbed attempt.

Southampton responded when Cyle Larin missed a low delivery from James Bree, and Sam Tickle tipped away Kuryu Matsuki's blast created by Leo Scienza. Despite briefly playing with ten men as Scienza received care following a knock with George Tanner, Tonda Eckert's side opened the scoring when Finn Azaz released Larin to weave past two opponents and bend a strike into the top corner, while Ballard subsequently headed Rio Cardines' cross wide before the break.

Larin doubled the hosts' cushion at the 60-minute mark, reacting quickest to bury a rebound after Tanner blocked a James Ward-Prowse strike set up by Scienza. Bristol City cut the deficit five minutes later, with Cardines returning Nathan Wood's clearance for Tolaj to steer home, but the hosts quickly extinguished any comeback hopes.

Matsuki restored the two-goal cushion by drilling an Azaz delivery into the lower right corner, before Azaz capped his influential display by finishing off a setup from Divin Mubama to seal an emphatic win over Michael Skubala's side.

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