Southampton exorcised the demons of their 7-2 thrashing at Tottenham last week by inflicting a first defeat of the year on an out-of-sorts Villa.

Southampton scored twice for the second week running, Kevin Davies scoring either side of half time, but this time their defence came away with their goal and pride intact.

Indeed Paul Jones, the goalkeeper who was the most overworked man at White Hart Lane last week as he picked the ball out of the net seven times, did not have a save to make against a Villa side who succumbed to their first defeat in 13 games.

Not surprisingly, Southampton’s manager Glenn Hoddle put caution first after losing at Tottenham, and dropped the error-prone Francis Benali.

Villa were without inspirational but injured captain Gareth Southgate, who was replaced by midfielder Ian Taylor in the heart of defence, and dropped striker Julian Joachim to the substitutes’ bench.

That meant a place for Paul Merson, but the former England man was far less influential than in his more customary midfield role.

His strike partner Benito Carbone, who is hoping to sign a lucrative contract, had little chance to impress against a Saints defence in which Tahar El Khalej was making his home debut.

It was pretty tedious stuff until Davies finally found the target. The former Blackburn striker had not scored since the start of January, but he looked full of confidence when he smacked home a volley from the edge of the penalty area after chesting down a poor headed clearance from Gareth Barry.

That sparked a frenzy of chances by comparison to what had happened previously. Jo Tessem had a shot cleared off the line by Taylor, and Villa’s goalkeeper Peter Enckelman carried the ball over his goal-line under challenge from Davies, who was penalised.

Having scored his first goal for ten weeks, Davies then scored another, running on to Matthew Oakley’s incisive through-pass from the half-way line before drawing Enckelman and curling a shot into the far corner of goal in the 64th minute.

But once Davies made it 2-0, Southampton’s confidence rose and Hassan Kachloul almost made it three when he volleyed just over the bar from close range.