The pressure increased on Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor as his side were beaten 1-0 in controversial circumstances at home to Southampton in tonight’s FA Premiership encounter.
Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman was red-carded by referee Steve Bennett as Kevin Beattie's 48th minute penalty earned Gordon Strachan’s Saints their first away success of the campaign. However, television replays clearly showed that it was Villa defender Alpay who held back Brett Ormerod inside the area. Beattie had no trouble then dispatching the ball to the net past Enckelman’s replacement, substitute Stefan Postma.
Graham Taylor's side had numerous chances to equalise, most notably from Darius Vassell and Gareth Barry, however they were all squandered as seventh-from-bottom Villa slumped to their sixth defeat of the season in front of the smallest ever crowd at the Birmingham ground in eight years (25,817).
Taylor’s future at the club now looks increasingly uncertain as he left the pitch to chants of “we want Taylor out” from sections of the Villa faithful. The result will also increase speculation that Villa are lining up under-fire Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy to replace the former England manager.
Meanwhile, Strachan will be generally pleased with his side’s impressive counter-attacking performance, which lifted them to twelfth in the table.
Filed by James Boylan.
