*Saints pile on Villa pain*

Southampton snatched their first away of the season as Gordon Strachan’s side narrowly beat 10-man Aston Villa.

The struggling Midlands side had to play most of the second half without goalkeeper Peter Enckelman.

Just 11 seconds after the restart Enckelman was sent-off after giving away a penalty that was converted by James Beattie.

The win saw Southampton move up one place into twelfth spot as Gordon Strachan’s side won on their travels for the first time since March.

After a muted first half the game exploded into life as Enckelman again took centre stage in a Monday night game of football.

Just over a month ago the Villa goalkeeper was adjudged to have touched Olof Melberg’s throw-in on its way to goal as Graham Taylor’s side lost 3-0 to Birmingham.

This time the Finn was involved in a mix-up with Alpay, which saw Brett Ormerod sandwiched between the two Villa players.

Referee Steve Bennett immediately red-carded the goalkeeper.

Television replays suggested that it was Alpay - the transfer-listed defender who was returning to the Villa team after a five-week interlude - who should have been dismissed.

On came Stefan Postma to make his Premiership debut, but the Dutch goalkeeper’s first task was to pick the ball out of the net after Beattie crashed his shot low into the corner.

The pity for Enckleman was that he had had a solid game up to that point.

After Fabrice Fernandes had sent Anders Svensson away, the Finn did well to stand his ground and block the Swede’s shot.

He then got down to gather an Ormerod shot and dealt with an Anders Svensson header on the stroke of half-time with aplomb.

The game’s other Finnish goalkeeper - Southampton’s Antti Niemi - enjoyed a more profitable game.

Notably when Barry strode into the box and his low shot saw the Finn turn the ball round the post.

He also got down well to save from Mustapha Hadji late on.

Villa have managed to score just six goals this season and this was the seventh game in which Villa have failed to score.

Those are miserable statistics which led to the Villa Park crowd booing their team off the pitch both at half time as well as at the end of the game.