Tough Night For City At St. Mary’s

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Tough Night For City At St. Mary’s

We suffered a 3-0 defeat at Southampton on Tuesday, ending a run of consecutive Sky Bet Championship wins on a difficult night on the South Coast.

2025-11-25T22:15+00:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

25 Nov, 2025

from St. Mary's Stadium

Tough Night For City At St. Mary’s

We suffered a 3-0 defeat at Southampton on Tuesday, ending a run of consecutive Sky Bet Championship wins on a difficult night on the South Coast.

Sam Stevens

2025-11-25T22:15+00:00

Tough Night For City At St. Mary’s

We suffered a 3-0 defeat at Southampton on Tuesday, ending a run of consecutive Sky Bet Championship wins on a difficult night on the South Coast.

Sam Stevens

2025-11-25T22:15+00:00

Tough Night For City At St. Mary’s

We suffered a 3-0 defeat at Southampton on Tuesday, ending a run of consecutive Sky Bet Championship wins on a difficult night on the South Coast.

Sam Stevens

2025-11-25T22:15+00:00

Tough Night For City At St. Mary’s

We suffered a 3-0 defeat at Southampton on Tuesday, ending a run of consecutive Sky Bet Championship wins on a difficult night on the South Coast.

Sam Stevens

2025-11-25T22:15+00:00

Trailing after the first of two Taylor Harwood-Bellis headers and Finn Azaz’s composed finish, City’s task became even steeper when full debutant Olabade Aluko was sent off before the break for two bookable offences. Harwood-Bellis' second goal, another header, completed the scoring before half-time on a night to forget for the Foxes.

The result leaves Martí Cifuentes’ side 13th in the Sky Bet Championship with 24 points from 17 matches.

Momentum goes Southampton’s way

On a crisp late November evening, we arrived at St. Mary’s looking to continue some positive momentum - and the opening minutes suggested we might.

Harry Winks saw an early low strike deflected wide, while Wout Faes and Aluko both had shots blocked by Harwood-Bellis amid a busy spell of pressure.

But that promise faded as Harwood-Bellis steered home a header on 18 minutes from Ryan Manning’s free-kick. Although James rose well to force a smart stop from Gavin Bazanu shortly afterwards, the contest soon swung decisively away from Leicester.

Saints take command

The hosts doubled their advantage in the 23rd minute. Leo Scienza drove through the midfield and picked the perfect moment to slide Azaz into space, the attacker finishing crisply into the bottom corner.

Aluko, having already gone into the book early on, received a second yellow for bringing down Tom Fellows - a tough outcome for the 19-year-old on his first start for the Club.

Asmir Begovic then produced an excellent one-handed save to deny Scienza later on, but Southampton would add a third before half-time, Harwood-Bellis again rising highest with 42 minutes on the clock to nod in Manning’s delivery.

Looking ahead

With 10 men, the second half became an exercise in halting the tide for Leicester. Southampton continued to probe, with Adam Armstrong going close and Begovic making a sharp double save during a scramble in the box, but there was no further change to the scoreline.

It remained, however, a frustrating night for a City side who had hoped to build on back-to-back wins over Norwich City and Stoke City.

The chance to respond arrives quickly though, with Sheffield United heading to King Power Stadium on Saturday - an opportunity for Cifuentes’ men to get back to winning ways.

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