*Villa’s revival rolls on*

Given a helpful draw, Aston Villa look the sort of side who could go all the way to Wembley now that they appear to have arrested their alarming autumn slide. They will need to improve on the wasteful finishing of yesterday, however, when their victory over a woeful Southampton was, in terms of goals, about one sixth as convincing as it should have been.

Fortunately for Villa, their captain Gareth Southgate, the defensive rock on whom so much of their game relies, showed his forwards how to do it and grabbed his third goal in a week after the brace in the win at Leeds, to take them through with considerably more ease than the scoreline suggests.

The omens were not good for Southampton, even if they did win here in the third round on their way to winning the Cup in 1977. Saints also managed a 1-0 win over Villa in the League in November in the middle of the home side’s bad patch when John Gregory’s job as manager was called into question, but more recently were beaten 4-0 in the Worthington Cup, a result that helped Villa regain some of their confidence.

To Southampton went the game’s first half-chance, Kevin Davies crossing low from the right and Marian Pahars just failing to reach it at the far post, but it served only to sting Villa into action. Soon, with Ian Taylor and George Boateng establishing a grip over the Norwegian Jo Tessem and Chris Marsden in midfield, they were pouring through a porous Saints defence.

Julian Joachim got between the unsteady pairing of Claus Lundekvam and Francis Benali and headed Steve Watson’s cross just wide, and Joachim then should have opened the scoring, clipping Taylor’s knock-down from Paul Merson’s ball forward over the bar. Alan Wright was then similarly culpable, sidefooting wide from eight yards after Taylor had put him in the clear.

A goal surely had to come and duly it did. After Lundekvam had held back Joachim, the eager, inventive Merson delivered a clever, accurate free kick to the far post where Taylor headed down for Southgate to stoop and head home from a few yards out.

More should have followed before half-time. Lundekvam slid in to block Joachim’s shot when it seemed certain that he would turn home Boateng’s cut back from the byline and Paul Jones flew across his goal to turn aside Carbone’s curling 20-yard free kick.

The interval only interrupted, rather than stemmed, the tide. Wright saw his low shot saved by Jones after Benito Carbone had missed an overhead kick from an astute cross by Joachim, who also forced the goalkeeper into a save after nipping behind a dreaming Southampton defence to reach Southgate’s clearance.

Taylor, his industry and energy making him the game’s outstanding player, then came close to sealing the match for Villa, rising to meet Merson’s chip only to see his header thump against the bar and away to safety.

Villa could have done with the second so that they could have confidently rested players before Tuesday’s Worthington Cup replay at West Ham. Instead, they did so with reservations, the more so because Southampton introduced Mark Hughes for a final attempt to secure a replay, although to create a chance would have been a start.

The fear for Villa was that self-doubt might creep in after their dominance had failed to yield more than one goal. In the end, though, Southampton were simply too inadequate to fight their way back into the tie.

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*The Guardian*
Monday, 10 January 2000
Match report by Mark Redding

*Southgate in striking form to pre-empt penalties*

West Ham United had better watch out. Not only is Gareth Southgate threatening to hand over the penalty-taking duties to his team-mates but his third goal in two games from open play means he may even settle tomorrow night’s re-run Worthington Cup tie before it ever gets to the shoot-out stage.

“I’m always available to take penalties but it might sometimes be wiser to say to someone else, ‘You have a crack,’” the Aston Villa captain acknowledged on Saturday. “Penalties are not my forte, as you know.”

Maybe not, but goalscoring presently is. As the only Villa player to have found the back of the net in the last 180 minutes Southgate can claim sole responsibility for upsetting the Premiership leaders Leeds United and now for knocking Southampton out of the FA Cup.

This was a tepid match that warmed up only when Southgate displayed his customary opportunism in the 20th minute. After Claus Lundekvam had been booked for pulling back Julian Joachim on the left, Paul Merson swung in the free-kick, Ian Taylor headed the ball back across the six-yard line and South gate stooped to conquer.

The watching England coach Kevin Keegan must have been impressed. No defender in the country is playing as well as Southgate and he easily snuffed out the threat of the reborn Kevin Davies, who was coming off a run of three goals in three games. That is something that gave Southgate as much satisfaction as scoring.

“It’s pleasing that we made a lot of chances and should have won easily but we also limited them to only a few opportunities,” he pointed out with professional relish.

Not that Southampton posed much of a threat. This was a spiritless show by the Saints, who had beaten Ipswich away in the last round, and it hardly bodes well for their annual battle against relegation. Jones is clearly having difficulty motivating his players and he looks like a man at his wits’ end.

“It doesn’t matter what team you put out, they have to go out and perform and today we couldn’t even make a pass over five yards,” he said after David James in the Villa goal did not have a save to make. “We never really got them turned, our forward line was non-existent and you can’t perform at the highest level when only three players are doing the business.” .

John Gregory’ problems are mundane in comparison but perturbing none the less. Southgate’s success in front of goal tells its own story about the lack of bite from Villa’ forwards and, with Dion Dublin out for the rest of the season with a damaged neck, the manager said he was considering shopping for a striker.

“Southgate is getting into the penalty box to score, which wasn’t possibly the case before. But I’d like to see the strikers score, I must say, it does worry me,” Gregory said. He refused to mention the C-word but it seems the forgotten Stan Collymore is now a target for the German club Bayer Leverkusen.

Villa have reached a crucial part of their season. They are on a mini run of 10 points from 12 in the league and the talk now is of a Uefa Cup place, most probably through one of the cup competitions, magnifying considerably the importance of tomorrow night’s visit to Upton Park in a quarter-final being replayed because West Ham fielded an ineligible player the first time round.

That night Southgate missed the crucial penalty in the shoot-out; now he aims to settle things in advance of extra-time. “The miss is past history,” he said. “We’re looking forward to going there and winning the game.”