Ormerod applies the final touches for Saints

Watford 1 Southampton

Southampton booked an FA Cup final date with Arsenal – plus a place in next season's Uefa Cup – with a hard-fought victory over Watford yesterday. Unlike the last Saints side to take the trophy in 1976 – a flamboyant band that included Peter Osgood and Mick Channon – Gordon Strachan's team excelled in the less vaunted values of teamwork, tackling and organisation, topped off by the striking prowess of James Beattie and Brett Ormerod.

Ormerod, a former Accrington Stanley player, who cost Strachan a modest £1.5m from Blackpool and probably owed his place to the long-term injury to Marian Pahars, for once eclipsed his illustrious partner. Not only did he head Southampton's opener, which eased their frayed nerves near the end of an unexpectedly even first half, but he created the clinching goal, claimed by Beattie but actually turned into his own net by Paul Robinson, just as Watford stirred again late in the second half.

Marcus Gayle, who had helped to subdue Beattie to a large extent, reminded Southampton that in a previous incarnation he was also a Premiership centre-forward. The converted central defender's header gave Watford fresh hope but they were unable to translate pressure into another clear-cut opportunity, let alone the equaliser that would have denied Strachan his place at the Millennium Stadium barely 18 months after he was sacked as Coventry manager.

So in the end, Watford, like Sheffield United, were condemned to a role that is about as romantic as halitosis for those to whom it falls; that of gallant failures. United's lunch- time defeat by Arsenal meant that Ray Lewington's side assumed responsibility for becoming the first non- Premiership finalists since Sunderland in 1992; an onerous task when you are lying 15th in the First Division.

For their previous semi-final, 16 years earlier, Watford summoned a retired goalkeeper, Garry Plumley, from his wine bar to face Tottenham after losing their regular custodian. Here, Lewington paired Michael Chopra and Heidar Helguson up front even though they had never played together, and for a time the sheer energy of the on-loan Newcastle striker and the Icelander put Southampton on the back foot.

Watford, for whom Micah Hyde and Paolo Vernazza made a good fist of establishing midfield ascendancy over Matt Oakley and Anders Svensson during the early stages, probably needed to score first to undermine the innate sense of superiority that goes with a respectable 11th place in the Premiership.

They almost managed it, too, Helguson's bottle-blond suedehead soaring to power the ball goalwards following Neil Ardley's fifth-minute free-kick. Paul Jones, playing in Southampton's goal for the first time this year, managed to scramble the ball behind by the base of the post.

For long periods of the first half, Southampton dominated possession without controlling the match. Ormerod and Beattie were well policed by Neil Cox and Gayle, while Fabrice Fernandes, whose wing trickery was a refreshing respite from the propensity of the other wide midfielders to tuck in, saw too little of the ball in areas where he could be dangerous. Even as the pressure on them grew, Alec Chamberlain remained largely untroubled and Watford looked forward to regrouping at half-time.

Ormerod ensured they had to do so from the position of being a goal down. Anders Svensson, seizing on a loose header by Cox, sent Chris Marsden scampering to the byline. The Southampton captain's delivery was perfect, allowing the unmarked Ormerod to steer his header away from Chamberlain on his 750th appearance in a manner Paul Peschisolido failed to do against David Seaman on his 1,000th.

Undaunted, Watford began the second half as feistily as they had the first. Chopra had an early opportunity to show how he had scored four at Burnley recently, only for Wayne Bridge to demonstrate why he is England's left-back with a fine recovering tackle. Ardley's 62nd-minute cross picked out Stephen Glass at the back post, but Jones arched to touch the ball on to and over the bar.

Watford's 19,000 followers, who made the Holte End resemble a giant, daffodil-covered hillside, no doubt wished that Helguson, so formidable in the air, had been on the end of the centre instead of Glass. But then "if onlys" are the losers' lot on such occasions, and any lingering doubt that such would be the Hertfordshire club's status was dispelled by a second Southampton goal with 11 minutes remaining.

The newly introduced Rory Delap dispossessed Hyde in the Watford half before sending Ormerod darting down the left flank. A low ball across the face of goal found Beattie converging with Gayle and Robinson, the ball entering the net off the much-booked full-back to be joined there by all three players. Beattie, a trifle sheepishly, took the plaudits and songs of South Coast triumphalism filled the air.

Gayle's riposte, a glancing header from Ardley's corner, guaranteed a more exciting finale than Strachan would have wished. In the semi-final analysis, however, consolation goals are a cruel misnomer.

Watford 1
Gayle 87

Southampton 2
Ormerod 43, Robinson og 79

H-T: 0-1 Att: 42,602

Southampton (4,4,2): Jones; Telfer, Lundekvam, M Svensson, Bridge; Fernandes, Oakley, A Svensson (Delap, 78), Marsden; Ormerod (Tessem, 90), Beattie. Substitutes not used: Davies, Higginbotham, Blayney (gk).

Watford (4-4-2): Chamberlain; Mahon, Cox, Gayle, Robinson; Ardley, Vernazza (Nielsen, 56), Hyde, Glass (Cook, 77); Helguson, Chopra (Smith, 70). Substitutes not used: Dyche, Lee (gk).

Referee: M Riley (Leeds).

Bookings: Watford: Cox, Robinson, Helguson. Southampton: Fernandes.

Man of the match: Ormerod.