Whilst February may not have been the best month for Southampton as a whole, they can now celebrate an individual award winner in their ranks.
That man is on-loan midfielder Joe Rothwell, who secured the EFL Championship Goal of the Month award for February with his stunning strike in the dramatic 5-3 victory over Huddersfield Town earning him the title.
The volley that flew into the top left corner from 20-yards was a thing of beauty and was also Rothwell’s first goal for the Saints; although he did add to that tally just a minute later in a remarkable turnaround.
Given the quality of the strike, it was not a shock that Rothwell was the winner of the February award, with Daily Echo Southampton reporter George Rees-Julian posting on ‘X’: ‘In the most unsurprising news ever, Joe Rothwell has won goal of the month for his strike against Huddersfield’.
This game also represented the first of two braces off the bench in Rothwell’s short Southampton spell so far, his second coming last time out against Sunderland.
Award-winning goal best of Joe Rothwell’s career
Speaking in a video posted on Southampton’s official Instagram account, Rothwell was asked about the goal and insisted he knew it was going in from the moment it left his foot.
When asked about the moment, the 29-year-old confirmed: “I didn’t watch it fully go in. I think I just turned around and started to run back to be honest. The lads have given me a bit of stick about not celebrating but yeah, it was nice.”
The interviewee then asks if it is the best goal Rothwell has scored, to which he responded: “yeah, easy”. Truthfully, there aren’t a huge amount of goals to choose from, with the Manchester United academy graduate having scored just 24 goals across his 304 career appearances. However, the strike against Huddersfield would be worthy of being the career-best strike of a player far more prolific.
Southampton fans will be hoping that Rothwell can add to his tally of four goals between now and the end of the season as the promotion battle intensifies. Since joining on loan from Bournemouth in January, Rothwell has primarily featured off the bench under Russell Martin but has had an impact with his two match-winning braces from the bench.
Rothwell has spoken on whether he could extend his stay at the club beyond the expiration of his loan in the summer, admitting he is ‘massively open’ to the idea of signing permanently.
With strikes like the award-winning one against Huddersfield, the ex-Blackburn Rovers midfielder is certainly doing his chances of a transfer no harm.