OK it wasn't the rout of last season's 6-1 thriller, but the result was exactly what was needed to see Saints through to the last 8 of the Capital One Cup.

The result might not have looked comfortable but the reality was this was a under strength Saints team who looked completely relaxed against a Villa side who looked short on quality and confidence.

In the first half Villa had a lot of the ball and pressed and probed, but rarely did they truly threaten, Saints looked like they were in control and you always felt that once Vila conceded then the tie was safe.

Ronald Koeman rang the changes especially at the back where Virgil Van Dijk was the only survivor from Sunday at Liverpool and in the midfield where Romeu, Ramirez and Juanmi would not usually start, indeed it could be said that of the starting XI only 4, Stekelenburg, Van Dijk, Wanyama, Pelle & to a lesser degree James Ward Prowse could be considered automatic choices.

But that meant that Saints had a good spine to the side although they were a trifle unbalanced in some areas.

Yoshida opened the scoring shortly after the break and once we had that goal Villa looked beaten, a double change with 20 minutes left saw Steven Davis & Tadic come on and Saints looked far better balanced for it with Davis moving the ball quickly and Tadic creating, the second goal was a peach, Davis hit a great cross field pass to Tadic who controlled and crossed for Pelle to slam home and the game was all but over.

The only down spot was the late penalty conceded tha from where I was sat looked very soft and harsh.

So how did the players who came in do ?

Yoshida although he got a goal is not a genuine right back and looked shaky at times and still prone to is lapses in concentration.

Caulker took a while to get going but is an experienced defender at this level and could be a perfect foil for Van Dijk in that he offers true strength, certainly he will push Fonte for a place.

Matt Targett had a decent game and did a lot more right than he did wrong, we should have no worries about playing him in future.

Juanmi showed glimpses of what he can do and is certainly an asett off the bench.

Romeu had a great game and will be useful, the cynic in me says that if Wanyama should leave then we already have his replacement.

Gaston Ramirez seemed to try to hard, he clearly put the effort in and wanted to show the manager what he can do, but the truth is little really came off for him.

All in all though, given injury, suspension and the changes a good result and another step forward, although we would have preferred a Championship club in the draw, we are at home and have a great chance of a place in the semi final.

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 11:32 - Oct 29 Didn't Ramirez exchange passes with Yoshida for the first goal - that's his job isn't it? I'm hoping that having him on the bench is going to spur other players on/ give Clasie some time to adapt. Hopefully Caulker is beginning to show signs of playing into form too. Great result and squad progress -bring on Liverpool. COYR!
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SaintNick added 11:50 - Oct 29 All in all I thought Ramirez tried hard but didnt influence the game as much, but he dd enough to suggest that he could get in again, however when Long & Rodriguez are back i dont think there will be enough room for him even on the bench
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DPeps added 12:38 - Oct 29 YOSHIDA Nothing else matters
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IWOZTHERE added 12:45 - Oct 29 Bit surprised RK made SO many changes after 'bigging up'our intentions and chances in this comp. Still, who cares...we're through! Another solid performance by Romeu, should get more game time.
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halftimeorange added 12:47 - Oct 29 I agree with you about Romeu. He looked solid buthe reminds me of Schneiderlin, rather than Wanyama - either way he's clearly useful and can pass the ball and break up play. As for Juanmi, I didn't see an awful lot that Harrison Reed wouldn't have given us and probably less in terms of upsetting the opposition. He made one really outstanding tackle but when attacking spent most of his time offside although he could look straight across the line. Have to say he wasn't helped going forward by Matt Targett's unwillingness to take on a man, nor use his right foot. I would persevere with Gaston. If the other players ever get on his wavelength he will cause problems. Steven Caulker looked the part and should be retained. Man of the match has to be Pelle. Fouled all night long but withstood everything that Villa, Clark in particular threw at him and scored a lovely goal. Villa - well, they look very low on confidence and might still be bottom at Christmas. Pity as they are well supported.

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schatfield added 13:04 - Oct 29 man, what a boring game though! goals aside, i nearly nodded off!
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TimSaint added 14:15 - Oct 29 Credit where credit is due please Nick :-) Yoshi opened the scoring !! Where was the goal description ? Won the ball well from an underhit Romeu pass, played a neat one-two with Gaston and fired in off the post with a rasping left footed shot from 20 yards. Admittedly, like you. he is towards the end of the list of my favourite players and last night with their pace down the keft, Villa should have exposed Yoshi much more than they did, but a rare and indeed great goal deserves a little more of a mention :-)

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ThereIn76 added 14:45 - Oct 29 To be fair to the Villa defenders who backed off and backed off as Maya advanced, absolutely nobody in the crowd expected him to shoot either . . . 😀
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SaintNick added 15:16 - Oct 29 Good goal from Yoshida , whilst he didnt help Ramirez much by offering a decent overlapping option, he showed Gaston what could be done
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bstokesaint added 19:19 - Oct 29 Got to say I'm glad it was a £12 game because after the first half that seemed expensive! Glad things got better in second half with introduction of Tadic and Stevie D. Shame Ramirez and Juanmi couldn't me more influential in a game that cried out for it. Both will get more chances though. I don't buy that Gaston is only a gap fill. He just needs to keep working hard, he's got the quality. He needs more game time.I know the majority of fans want to see him succeed. Great goal as well for Yoshida. Didn't see that coming. Definitely deserves some credit given the stick he gets after bad games. I'm pretty sure I don't remember him switching off either at any point.

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BUCK added 21:45 - Oct 29 I wish he would give pelle a rest. I know the big guy is playing h excellent every game and all his goals are like he's won the world cup on his own what with his celebrations. But he did burn out last season with around 8 games to go
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TimSaint added 11:05 - Oct 30 Buck - Although I agree that we should be looking to rest Pelle, as we did v MKD in the previous round, we had no option but to play him v Villa, with Mane, Long and JRod all out. I would argue that his burn out happened before the last 8 games - coinciding with that massive goal drought he experienced. In fact in the last 8 games, he broke his hoodoo with a goal v Hull, notched a brace at home to Spurs and would have had another Brace v Villa had it not been for a dodgy linesman decision. He is now a regular in the Italian team as well now, so yes we should do our upmost to rest him where possible and I think that with a bit of TLC, he can have a even better season than last.

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