Man-of-the-match Jose Fonte was delighted as Southampton held on to record a narrow 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. The visitors took the lead after 69 minutes as substitute Dusan Tadic capitalised on Graziano Pelle's rebound to slot home his fourth goal of the season.
Juan Mata missed two great chances in succession as the hosts pressed for an equaliser with 10 minutes left, but Saints held on for all three points.
“It’s not every day you get a win at Old Trafford against a great team so for us it’s a pleasure and something we should be proud of,” Fonte told Sky Sports 1.
“There’s a long way to go but it’s another three points. We got a lot of confidence from this game.
“It was a game that we defended really well, and they only had shots from outside the box if I’m not wrong. It was a fantastic game this afternoon.”
The defeat ended United's 10-match unbeaten run in the Premier League and left Wayne Rooney disappointed. Rooney believed United had the majority of chances and deserved to win, with the goal scored against them Southampton's only shot on target.
The England captain said: “That’s football, that’s how it goes. I think we deserved to win the game today. They had the chance in the first minute and the goal — which they’ve taken — so I think overall we had the better chances, we played the better football and deserved to win, but we’ve been punished for not taking our chances.
“I’ve seen Southampton play better to be honest. We stopped a lot of their threats, but we got punished for the goal they scored and we didn’t take our chances.”
The result moved Southampton above United into third in the Premier League, 10 points behind leaders Chelsea, with the hosts two points further back.
Louis van Gaal’s team face QPR, Leicester, West Ham, Burnley, Swansea, Sunderland and Newcastle in the coming weeks and Rooney added: “We have to move on a focus on the next game. We’ll go in tomorrow and start our preparations for our next game.”
