Southampton 2-1 Aston Villa
- Published
Graziano Pelle has scored eight goals this season for Southampton
Southampton booked their place in the Capital One Cup quarter-finals thanks to goals from Maya Yoshida and Graziano Pelle against managerless Aston Villa.
Yoshida drilled in a low shot just after half-time to make it 1-0.
Pelle doubled the lead with his eighth goal of the season when he volleyed in unmarked from Dusan Tadic's cross.
Scott Sinclair scored an injury-time consolation for the visitors from the penalty spot after Jordan Ayew was fouled but they could not find another.
Southampton, who are at home to Liverpool in the last eight, are now unbeaten in six games.
How did Villa do post-Sherwood?
The hosts were made to wait for their chances against the side who sacked Tim Sherwood on Sunday.
Former assistant manager Kevin MacDonald took charge and made five changes from Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Swansea.
Villa carved out the clearest chances of a quiet first half. Leandro Bacuna forced a save from Maarten Stekelenburg from the edge of the area and Rudy Gestede almost squeezed a header in at the back post from a corner.
But after the Saints' two goals, Villa's healthy contingent of away fans were given a goal to cheer late on.
Virgil van Dijk clumsily tripped substitute Ayew and Sinclair sent Stekelenburg the wrong way with what was almost the last kick of the game.
What's next for Villa?
MacDonald says he does not know what the future holds for him or the club.
"It's been a pretty hectic few days for me since I got a call on Sunday asking me to take charge," he said.
"I'm disappointed as Tim was very good to me, bringing me back to the club and the players are disappointed as they don't like to see managers losing their jobs.
"I haven't spoken to anyone since Sunday about how long I'm going to be doing the job. Sooner rather than later it would be better for the club to appoint a new manager and we can get back to doing what we're doing.
"But it seems to be they've gone down the road of talking to one or two people, so good luck to whoever comes in. If they ask me to stay on for Monday's game, fine by me."
Manager reaction
Southampton boss Ronald Koeman:
"I'm pleased with the performance, but the first half was too slow, not enough pressing.
"There weren't many chances for Aston Villa and we scored two good quality goals. I'm surprised with the first as Maya Yoshida doesn't normally produce a finish like that.
"It's difficult to win this competition as I think everyone takes it seriously. It's an honour to play at Wembley and to win a title. We've shown already we can beat the big teams."
Aston Villa caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald:
"We were disappointed in the goals we conceded, but that's history now and we have to build the guys up from this and move on to the next game.
"I thought there were a lot of positives, especially in the first half. We came with a game plan to frustrate one of the best sides in the Premier League and probably ended up with the better chances, albeit half-chances.
"Second half, we were sure Southampton would come out and play at a higher tempo, but we thought if we got to 60 minutes we could go at them again, but that wasn't to be.
"The second goal comes from an individual error and the disappointing thing is we're out of the cup."
- Published28 October 2015
