Updated at 17.30
ASTON VILLA SUFFERED a 10th successive Premier League defeat as a double from Dusan Tadic helped Southampton to a 4-2 win over the hapless relegated club.
Tadic twice added to Shane Long’s opener for the Saints as Villa’s shambolic defending made life easy for Ronald Koeman’s side, who added a fourth goal in stoppage time through substitute Sadio Mane.
Ashley Westwood scored twice for Villa to draw them within a single goal of their visitors on two occasions at Villa Park.
But that was not enough to silence the angry home fans, who booed their players, called for the departure of owner Randy Lerner and bombarded the pitch with paper planes on another day of dissent.
Villa are now just one loss away from equalling a grim club record of 11 in a row, set in the 1962-63 season.
Villa should have been behind in the second minute courtesy of some comical defending.
Micah Richards, who was restored to the team at centre-back, totally missed a header, Joleon Lescott failed to make a challenge and Long hit the bar with the goal at his mercy.
But it was merely a temporary reprieve for Villa, who were behind on 15 minutes as Southampton scored the simplest of goals.
Ryan Bertrand’s cross from the left found Long, who ghosted away from the flat-footed Lescott and planted an unmarked header past the helpless Brad Guzan in the Villa goal for his sixth Premier League goal in seven appearances.
The 29-year-old has now scored nine goals in the top-flight this campaign and is now just one more away from reaching double figures in the Premier League for the first time.
Long has rediscovered his goalscoring touch of late after struggling with injury and his fine form will be music to the ears of Martin O’Neill with Euro 2016 just around the corner.
Villa had the chance to draw level on 22 minutes when Alan Hutton found space on the right and crossed for Leandro Bacuna, but he headed wide of the target.
The visitors thought they had doubled their lead 12 minutes before half-time when the ball broke for Long and he finished coolly past Guzan.
But the Tipperary man’s celebrations were cut short as the officials correctly ruled out his effort for offside.
Villa ought to have levelled the scores eight minutes before the break after Hutton powered through midfield and fed Bacuna to his right.
Bacuna’s cross found Westwood, but he fired straight at visiting goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
The Saints doubled their lead on 39 minutes as Villa imploded again.
Bacuna’s awful pass was intercepted by Long, who outpaced Lescott and although Guzan blocked the ball at Long’s feet, he managed to tee up Tadic to make it 2-0.
Villa reduced the arrears out of the blue just before the interval when the visitors failed to clear Jordan Ayew’s cross from the left and it broke for Westwood, who scored from 10 yards.
19-year-old Irish defender Kevin Toner was brought on as a half-time substitute for Villa to make his Premier League debut.
Villa threatened briefly to equalise when Aly Cissokho advanced down the left and crossed for half-time substitute Rudy Gestede, but his header looped over the bar.
But with 19 minutes remaining, the visitors killed off any hopes of a Villa comeback when they scored their third goal.
A poor pass from Idrissa Gueye triggered a counter-attack for the Saints, Long’s pace forced Lescott to backpedal and the defender’s failure to make a challenge allowed long to tee up Tadic for the simplest of finishes.
Westwood then added his and Villa’s second with five minutes remaining as the visitors only half-cleared a corner and the midfielder scored from long-range.
But after Long had hit the side-netting, Mane made no mistake in stoppage time as he arrived unmarked to nod home a Cedric Soares cross.
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If it was a tennis player he’d be back in action in about 18 months
@Catherine Sims:
If he was Russian he’d be back last week.
@Catherine Sims: if he was Russian he’d be…. well get away with it
@David Sinclair: Yeah – like there is no sportsmen banned from Russia. Did you slept last 10 years people ???
As soon as Billy Walsh left the Irish boxing team went down the tubes. It’s rare that one man can make such a difference but the display in the Olympics together with this, shows how badly needed was.
@prop joe: lol you haven’t a clue do you Joe
@Gareth: yeah, they are doing so well without him.
@prop joe: that’s harsh man on the years of effort the boxers put in. Obviously him leaving under the circumstances, but the circumstances and scrutiny on the team leading up to the Olympics just days before had a collective effect on the team, particularly Joe ward and Katie’s performances. And slagging them now is disingenuous and ignorant.
Sometimes I wonder how many sports stars, if any, have an operation like Lance Armstrong did where they aren’t being caught because of it. It seems to happen in the UFC and tennis, I wonder about football and rugby etc
@happy: definitely in football. But because there is such interest and money in the sport, they will never get done. You just have to shake your head and wonder why there were over 70 redacted names in the Operation Puerto case. A few cyclists names came out of the report because it was round the time of the Armstrong case. Then all of a sudden they froze every other name in the report, even though they physically still have the blood samples.
Not to mention around those years Spain win the Euro’s, and the World Cup, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the top teams in the world and Nadal was winning everything under the sun in tennis, and then suddenly he had a massive knee injury and is out for up to a year as the case is going through the media. Hmmm funny that.
@Jonathan Nolan: funny that a case that led to arrests in 2006 could lead you to thinking that it is related to European championship wins in 2010 and 2014 , World Cup win in 2012 and a dozen Grand Slam wins by Nadal in 2009 to 2017 . No positives ever received in 1000s of tests .
Nadal won his libel case against the French sports minister , and would win it against you too .
Is this also in his culture ?
@chinaski: We have greatest culture in the world – there is no second country so “agreeable” like us. We let our “allies” to rip us off, to use our lands, sea, airports, banks, we do whatever they want. How dare they to ban our sportsmen like that so ?!
Spent a year and a half dragging the arse out of it like all the cheats do.
@Shane Gleeson: slime
In the interest of equality, everyone athlete should take drugs, just to level the playing field.
4 years is a disgrace !!! Hope it doesn’t run him out the sport for good cause he’s 1 of the most talented boxers we’ve ever seen in Ireland.
@AL Thornton: Do the crime do the time, A drugs cheat , disgraced the country.
@AL Thornton: I know very little about this sport I do know if it’s proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the doping happened no matter it’s in China Russia or this Country then they should be gone. Reading some of the comments here you would think he took a packet of sweets.
@AL Thornton: your right it is a disgrace alright.
It should be life. 4 years backdated? Not enough. Cheats out.
@Samuel Karl Toland:
Who Supplies them with Drugs….
@AL Thornton: Hopefully it does run him out of the sport. That’s surely the only way to say good riddance to drugs cheats like him. 4 years is pittance.
@Mike: I’m all for banning cheats but there isn’t the same sanctions for cheats across all sports and all countries. It there was more uniformity around bans people wouldn’t be complaining. The fact is though he gets 4 years because he’s not a Russian or a wealthy well known tennis player. Bans should be for all cheats.
@AL Thornton: it should be a life ban.
@Gerry Murphy: as far as I know he took a protein shake from a pal at his boxing club but never checked with the Irish set up if the shake was ok for him to take. There was a small trace of a banned substance in it but it’s wasn’t performance enhancement
@AL Thornton: talent shouldn’t need drugs
@billy Dorney: But it needs supplements!
@AL Thornton: you’re naive
@Catherine Sims: In a perfect world, there would be uniformity in terms of sanctions against drugs cheats. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. It doesn’t mean that we can or should go easy on our cheats just because the Russians (who have zero credibility as a result) run a doping programme. We’re either for or against drugs in sport, it’s black or white.
What a shame…
Idiot. Should never be allowed play again.
@Sean Dilligan: does one play boxing?
@Minom Pnnomm: it’s a game and he plays it
@Alison Maguire: does one play boxing??
@Paul Reid: he plays a sports game called boxing
Dope