FA Cup Fourth Round: Southampton 2-0 Yeovil Town

Yeovil Town boss Gary Johnson said he was proud of his players after his side’s battling defeat at Southampton, despite the needless first-half error which put the Premier League side on the road to victory.      

Yeovil had started well at St Mary's and were matching the 1976 FA Cup winners until Jamie McAllister’s handball gifted Saints a penalty on 23 minutes.

Forgotten man Guly Do Prado stepped up to score his first goal of the season from the spot, and from then on the result was rarely in doubt.

A first ever senior goal from 18-year-old Sam Gallagher put the result beyond doubt, but Johnson was upbeat after a performance that bodes well for his side’s chance of avoiding relegation in their first ever season in English football’s second tier.

“We played our game, our tactic and kept them down to a few chances and created a few chances ourselves so I was very proud of our team,” he said.

“On another day we might have scored one or two in the first half that could have made them panic a little bit.

“It was a bad bit of misjudgement from our left-back [for the penalty]. They are very clever with their corners and set plays. They have a lot of movement and they cause confusion and unfortunately we made a mistake - I’ll never quite work out why people do that.

“I was disappointed that we gave them the goal rather than them earning it and that put us a little bit on the back foot but we kept in the game and recovered from it quite well.”

Yeovil, second-bottom of the Championship, were on the up after ending a run of six league games without a win with victory at Birmingham City. They had also thumped the League One high-flyers Leyton Orient 4-0 in the Third Round, and the 3,400 fans who made the 60-mile trip from Somerset were hopeful that their club could add to its giant-killing reputation.

The conditions for a shock were there. Saints were without Rickie Lambert, Artur Boruc, Dejan Lovren and Gaston Ramirez through injury while Yeovil featured a threatening looking big man-little man forward partnership of ex-Manchester City striker Ishmael Miller and veteran marksmen James Hayter, who had scored a brace in each of the recent wins over Birmingham and Orient.

The early stages were notable only for the noise from the travelling supporters but Southampton sprung to life on 16 minutes when Jay Rodriguez saw a side-footed effort smartly saved by Marek Stech. The same player then crashed a header off the underside of the bar before McAllister’s moment of madness gave Do Prado the chance to open the scoring.

Saints' Morgan Schneiderlin chases Ed Upson.

Ten minutes later an Adam Lallana cross skimmed the bar but Yeovil were hanging in there and Hayter saw a point-blank effort kept out by Kelvin Davis before Miller blazed over when well placed on the stoke of half-time.

The Championship side began the second period in similar fashion with McAllister forcing Davis to turn a low effort round the post but Adam Lallana, full of sharp turns, clever flicks and penetrative running, was beginning to take control of the game.

James Ward-Prowse fired narrowly over from the edge of the box and Nathaniel Clyne and the substitute Gallagher also had powerful drives kept out by Stech.

It was a only a matter of time before the second arrived and with 20 minutes to go Gallagher bulldozed his way down the right and fizzed a shot through Stech. The 6ft 4ins player is the latest product of Southampton’s famed academy, and celebrated with real relish after serving notice of his talent.

A freak hailstorm swept across St Mary’s with 15 minutes to play but Southampton continued to press and two lightning-quick breakaways ended with another substitute, Steven Davis, and then Gallagher bringing fantastic saves out of Stech.

By the end, the difference in quality between the two teams was stark, and Southampton's assistant manager Jesus Perez was delighted.

"We are pleased to get into the next round and pleased for the players," he said. "It was not an easy game, like all FA Cup games. The first half was open and they had some chance to score and at the beginning of the second half as well, but after that we played better and better and we created lots of chances to win the game."

Southampton (4-3-3): K Davis; Clyne, Hooiveld, Yoshida, Shaw; Schneiderlin, Cork, Ward-Prowse (Reed, 84); Lallana (S Davis, 73), Rodriguez, Do Prado (Gallagher, 55).
 
Subs not used: Gazzaniga, Fonte, Davis, Chambers, Isgrove.

Manager: Mauricio Pochettino.
 
Goals: Do Prado (22), Gallagher (70).

Yeovil Town (4-4-2): Stech; Ayling, McCallister, Webster, Duffy; Edwards Ralls, Grant (Upson, 74), Lundstrom; Hayter (Moore, 62), Miller (Foley, 85).
 
Subs not used: Dunn, Dawson, Ofori-Twumasi, Morgan.

Referee: Phil Dowd.

Attendance: 24,070.