Gordan Strachan's Southampton outclassed Tottenham Hotspur to win 4-0 at St. Mary's this evening as Glen Hoddle endured a miserable return to his former club in the FA Cup. James Beattie was on form and goalkeeper Kasey Keller was unable to hold his fierce free-kick after 12 minutes, allowing Michael Svensson to open the scoring for Southampton and the home side were unlucky not to take a bigger lead into the half time interval.
But Gordon Strachan's team took a firm control on proceedings in the first 11 minutes after the break as Beattie set up Jo Tessem before Anders Svensson walked through Tottenham's defence to score a third and Beattie deservedly got his name on the scoresheet 10 minutes from time to round off the scoring.
Strachan heaped praise on Beattie afterwards saying, "The goal summed up everything about James in terms of determination and power. I also thought he showed a wee bit of composure. I thought he was going to hit it straightaway and he fooled everybody. To do that at that stage of the game said everything about him."
The result, however, left Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle cursing his fortune on his return to Southampton as he was booed throughout along with defender Dean Richards, the man he lured from St Mary's to White Hart Lane.
"It was very frustrating," said Hoddle, who admitted the game's complexion would have been radically altered if Sheringham had scored with a glancing header in the opening minutes.
Filed by Johnny Proby
