Pahars takes advantage

Southampton 1 Everton

Penalty was a dirty word for Southampton on Saturday after the controversial late award which deprived them of a point at Tottenham. But what went around came around last night as a hotly disputed kick given against Everton's David Weir following a challenge on Marian Pahars allowed the latter player to give his side a leg up the table via the spot. Lose some, win some.

Two of Southampton's three recent signings watched the match get under way from the bench – the goalkeeper Antti Niemi and Russia's former Manchester United and Everton winger Andrei Kanchelskis. They saw Southampton show caution early on and, after just three minutes, Everton's greater aggression threatened to tip the game away from the men in red and white stripes as Tomasz Radzinski harried Southampton's goalkeeper Paul Jones into conceding a corner. From Thomas Gravesen's kick, the Everton defender David Weir turned the ball narrowly wide.

Southampton responded with a speculative 35-yard shot from the midfielder Rory Delap which forced Everton's Paul Gerrard to tip the ball away for a corner. The effort seemed to brighten the home side up and, on the quarter-hour, after Weir had been penalised for a handball on the edge of the penalty area, England's sometime full-back Wayne Bridge curled a left-footed shot narrowly over the bar.

Everton, under the urgent touchline prompting of their young manager, David Moyes, regained the initiative after 20 minutes and should have gone a goal up when Radzinski, sent in on goal by his forward partner Kevin Campbell, evaded Bridge but then shot over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

Bridge made up for his slip a couple of minutes later with a driving run down the left and a cross from which Brett Ormerod put the ball narrowly wide from a bicycle kick.

The second half developed into a story of Everton counter-attacks which lacked only finishing touches. After 52 minutes, Radzinski got behind the entire Southampton defence but wasted his opportunity. Ten minutes later the same player burst into the box again after a misplaced pass by Claus Lundekvam and forced Jones into an urgent save from which Campbell put the rebound into the side netting. Eight minutes later the visitors engineered another swift opportunity, but this time their Chinese World Cup midfielder Li Tie shot weakly.

The visitors were made to rue their profligacy within a minute as a break at the other end saw Marian Pahars who had joined the action along with Kanchelskis in the 55th minute, fall under a challenge from Everton's towering centre-back Weir. Everton were incensed by the award, but when the handbagging died down Pahars converted the kick without fuss.

Southampton (4-4-2): Jones 5; Dodd 5 (Telfer 6, 65), Lundekvam 4, Williams 7, Bridge 7; Fernandes 5, Delap 5, A Svensson 6 (Pahars 7, 55), Marsden 6; Beattie 6, Ormerod 6 (Kanchelskis 6, 55). Substitutes not used: Niemi (gk), M Svensson.

Everton (4-4-2): Gerrard 6; Hibbert 5, Li Wei Feng 7, Weir 7, Unsworth 6; Alexandersson 5 (Rooney, 79), Gravesen 7, Li Tie 6, Pembridge 5; Campbell 8, Radzinski 6. Substitutes not used: Watson, Rodrigo, Gemmill, Linderoth.

Referee: S Bennett (Kent) 6.