THE SATISFACTION was evident in his beaming countenance. David O’Leary may pour scorn on suggestions that his fledgling team could earn a place in the Champions’ League, but he is prepared to acknowledge an achievement many considered beyond his, and his players’, capabilities. Substitutes not used: Newsome, Briscoe, Pressman (gk).Referee: R Harris (Banbury) Bookings: Southampton: Le Tissier, Kachloul, Marsden. Wednesday: Booth.Man of the match: Le Tissier.Attendance: 15,201.. Substitutes not used: Ripley, Bridge, Moss (gk).Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Srnicek; Atherton, Emerson Thome, Walker, Hinchcliffe (Stefanovic, 21); Alexandersson, Sonner, Jonk (Humphreys, 85), Rudi; Booth, Carbone. In fact, had a couple of audacious 30-yard strikes from the Channel Islander also gone in, the win might even have had a gloss finish.Goal: Le Tissier (41) 1-0.Southampton (4-4-2): Jones; Dodd, Monkou, Lundekvam, Colleter (Benali, 83); Oakley (Beattie, 66), Le Tissier, Marsden, Kachloul; Ostenstad, Hughes.

And then Le Tissier – as ever – came to Southampton’s aid with a header to Matthew Oakley’s cross for what you might call a Matt finish. They even forfeited their record of not having lost at The Dell in 29 years, although when Marsden tried to pass the ball into his own net after 22 minutes it looked as if they might come away with something.The task was complicated by the loss of Andy Hinchcliffe with a back injury which could keep him out of England’s European Championship qualifier against Poland on Saturday. With Michael Mols, the Utrecht striker they have been courting, set to join Rangers, Danny Wilson must find an alternative before Thursday’s transfer deadline or he may find himself returning to Oakwell next season.This was their fourth consecutive defeat and if relegation is to creep up on any one this season it might just be Wednesday. As Howard Wilkinson once famously said of them: “They are a big city team with a small-town mentality.”Even with Benito Carbone back after suspension, their attack looked pitifully weak.

Even if they were to win all four of their remaining home games it would still give them only 41 points and their next game at The Dell in a fortnight’s time is against Arsenal, when they will be without the suspended Matt Le Tissier, Hassan Kachloul and Chris Marsden.Wednesday’s problem is exactly the opposite: they have the stadium but lack the support They also seem to lack the ambition. Such is the demand for season tickets that many Saints fans resigned themselves long ago to watching reserve-team football.If those same supporters are to watch Premiership football in the new stadium in three years’ time, Southampton need to start picking up points away from home. During his after-match press conference he kept returning to what he saw as a missed opportunity at the Riverside Stadium, which tells you what he thinks of Bryan Robson’s under-achievers.
Southampton’s urgent need for a bright, new, shiny, money-making stadium of their own has been staring successive boards at The Dell in the face for years and, now that they appear to have finally got one, at St Mary’s, the danger is it will come too late to preserve their Premiership status after 21 years in the top flight.As Jones says: “The thing we’ve got in common with Manchester United is that we both sell out our grounds from day one each season.” With a capacity of 15,000, what they have not got in common with United is the size of those sell-outs. A week on and in his hour of victory Jones was still struggling to get his team’s defeat at Middlesbrough out of his head. It was the five consecutive away defeats that most concerned the Saints manager on Saturday, and with good reason. HOME COMFORTS are all very well but Southampton’s fifth consecutive victory at The Dell was not about to lull Dave Jones into a false sense of security. John Toshack’s Real Madrid side ground out their third successive league win, 2-0 against Extremadura, thanks to Raul’s 18th league goal of the season and an own goal..

Kahn has now gone 723 minutes without conceding a goal – 82 minutes longer than Oliver Reck, who held the previous league record with 641 minutes for Werder Bremen in the 1987-88 season.The Spanish League leaders, Barcelona, were grateful to their Dutch World Cup midfielder, Philip Cocu, whose two goals secured a 2-0 win at Real Sociedad yesterday.Celta Vigo enjoyed a 3-0 win at home to Santander but Real Mallorca were beaten 2-1 at home by Deportivo La Coruna. But the defender Mark Iuliano equalised from close range and it took a superb double save from the visitor’s Austrian goalkeeper, Michael Konsel, to deny Juve’s Nicola Amoruso a late winner.Bordeaux clung to their one-point lead over Marseilles in the two-horse race for the French title with a tight 1-0 home win over Strasbourg on Saturday.After taking an 11th-minute lead through their captain Michel Pavon, Bordeaux were indebted to some fine saves from their goalkeeper Ulrich Rame as they struggled to shake off the hangover from their 6-0 midweek Uefa Cup thrashing at Parma.Marseilles, inspired by two goals from Fabrizio Ravanelli, enjoyed a 4-1 home victory over 10-man Lorient, whose goalkeeper Angelo Hugues was sent off in the first half for handling a shot by Florian Maurice outside the area.The goalkeeper Oliver Kahn set a German Bundesliga record on Saturday as Bayern Munich profited from a late goal from Carsten Jancker to beat Werder Bremen 1-0 to record their eighth successive league victory. Mihajlovic, who has now scored seven of his eight goals this season direct from free-kicks, added a superb second from a dead-ball situation in the 14th minute to ensure that Lazio equalled last season’s club record of 16 league matches without defeat.Fiorentina recovered from the second-half dismissal of their Czech defender, Thomas Repka, to beat Piacenza 2-1 with a last-minute goal from Carmine Esposito.Milan’s title hopes looked doomed when Yksel Osmanovski’s second goal of the match put Bari 2-1 up with 11 minutes left at San Siro but Maurizio Ganz’s injury-time penalty salvaged a fortuitous 2-2 draw for the home side.The European Cup semi- finalists, Juventus, looked destined for their first defeat in eight matches under their new coach, Carlo Ancelotti, when Marco Delvecchio headed Roma in front in the second half. The former Juventus coach Marcello Lippi, who left the champions last month, has been linked to Inter – but a deal has not yet been confirmed by the club or the coach.
The Serie A leaders Lazio made short work of Venezia yesterday, with two goals in the opening 15 minutes from Sergio Conceicao and the free- kick specialist Sinisa Mihajlovic sealing their eighth successive victory at the Olympic stadium in Rome.Lazio’s early nerves were settled by Conceicao, who netted with a volley from Giuseppe Favalli’s eighth-minute cross. Lucescu arrived at Inter in December as a short-term replacement for the sacked Gigi Simoni. The Romanian coach agreed a seven-month contract and had already announced he was leaving at the end of the season.