Southampton 2- 0 Bury (The Times)

[Chase]

TWO FORTUITOUS goals, one taking a wicked deflection and the other scored from the penalty spot at the third attempt, no less, took Southampton through to the fifth round of the FA Cup. George Burley, who departed to manage his native Scotland during the week, was not necessarily missed on the pitch, or, football supporters being what they are, off it. The preoccupation at St Mary’s inevitably is over his successor.

If the new Southampton manager is to be Jason Dodd, he has not been informed or is not letting on. He and John Gorman, an amalgam of modern and ancient, were in charge of team selection here and will be again for the match against Norwich on Tuesday. To put the lack of managerial continuity at St Mary’s in perspective, this is the tenth person or pairing that Claus Lundekvam, the club captain, has served under. “Your guess is as good as mine whether I will be appointed or whether somebody else will be in place by the end of the week,” said Dodd.

So who will replace Burley, whose name was not chanted once by Southampton’s supporters? Chris Coleman, perhaps. Maybe Sam Allardyce, who is back from his holiday in Barbados. Or even Stuart Baxter, the former England Under19 coach. And what about Glenn Hoddle or Graeme Souness, both of whom know this club well? Paul Ince would appear to be the favourite of the supporters.

The list is seemingly never-ending, and there are unemployed individuals among them, but the reality is that few of these familiar names will be properly interested. For one thing, they are well aware that available funds amount to next to nothing.

Lawrie McMenemy, whose name is synonymous with the FA Cup in these parts owing to Southampton’s victory in 1976, will also have a say, as he is doing at the moment in team selection. “There are a lot of very good candidates who have already expressed an interest,” said Leon Crouch, the chairman. “We did not want George Burley to go but we could not stand in the way of him becoming Scotland’s manager.”

Dodd sees his role as keeping the club “ticking over” and to that end he felt that there was an improvement in the second half.

“We were a bit nervous before that and did not keep the ball as well as we can do. Bury had eight players behind the ball and tried to hit us on the break,” he said.

In fact Southampton were fortunate not to be 2-0 down by the seventh minute. Richie Baker struck a free kick against the right post and then, finding himself clear of the back line, shot weakly at Kelvin Davis and struck the rebound wide.

So Bury could easily have been halfway to the scoreline their supporters reminded Southampton about from the first meeting between the two clubs: 4-0 in the FA Cup final of 1900. Heady days, and for a while yesterday something similar did not seem inconceivable. They were to strike Davis’ woodwork in the second half, too, through a header by Andy Bishop. Bury did not give the appearance of a club in 88th place in the Football League, for sure.

What Southampton needed was an element of fortune. They duly achieved this after 71 minutes when Andrew Surman drove the ball with some velocity at Bury’s goal. Jim Provett, who was blameless all afternoon, seemingly had it covered, until the unluckiest of deflections off Paul Scott sent it spinning away into his left hand corner. And if that was not enough, Southampton’s second also owed something to chance.

They were awarded a penalty when Scott, the captain, pushed Stern John, who had just come on as substitute. Grzegorz Rasiak took the kick not once but effectively three times, for his initial low shot, struck without force or direction, was competently saved, the follow-up was parried by Provett and he required a third stab at the ball to score.

Where were Bury’s players? They reacted far too late, not appreciating the expertise of their goalkeeper, as if they were disheartened by this stage. This was even though Southampton were hardly exerting any measure of superiority. Those misses by Baker were not easily forgotten.

Player ratings: Southampton: Davis 7, Thomas 7, Powell 6 (Skacel 63min), Davies 7 (Idiakez ht, 6), Vignal 6, Hammill 7 (John 75min), Euell 5, Wright 6, Surman 8, Wright-Phillips 6, Rasiak 6
Bury: Provett 7, Haslam 6, Futcher 6, Scott 6, Woodthorpe 6, Stephens 6, Baker 6, Barry-Murphy 6 (Mangan 80min), Buchanan 6 (Dorney 84min), Adams 6, Bishop 6

Star man: Andrew Surman (Southampton)

Scorers: Southampton: Surman 71, Rasiak 80

Referee: S Attwell

Attendance: 25,449