Pelle ends goal drought with double in Southampton win

Football Soccer - Stoke City v Southampton - Barclays Premier League - Britannia Stadium - 12/3/16 Southampton's Graziano Pelle in action with Stoke's Giannelli Imbula and Marko Arnautovic Action Images via Reuters / Ed Sykes Livepic

REUTERS - Stoke City 1 Southampton 2

Graziano Pelle ended his goal-scoring drought, striking twice to enable Southampton to repel a second-half fightback from Stoke and leapfrog them into seventh place in the Premier League.

The Italian striker had gone 12 league matches since the start of November without a goal but a double in the first half-hour of the mid-table clash ensured the end of Stoke's four-game unbeaten run.

Pelle flicked in a Steven Davis corner with a neat header after 11 minutes before he benefited from fine approach work from Dusan Tadic in the 29th to make it 2-0 at the Britannia Stadium.

After Tadic missed a golden chance to seal the points before halftime, Stoke roared back with Marko Arnautovic scoring once and almost earning an equaliser but Southampton clung on despite Sadio Mane being sent off in the dying seconds for a challenge on Erik Pieters.

(Reporting by Ian Chadband; Editing by Tony Jimenez)