The feast of

Southampton ..... 1 Watford ..... 0 JACK IN THE BOX POPS UP TO GRAB A BIRTHDAY TREAT AND STUN SAD GRACIA

JACK STEPHENS celebrated his 24th birthday with his first Southampton goal to fire his Saints side into the last 16 of the FA Cup.

But new Watford boss Javi Gracia might be grateful not to have the distraction of another competition.

The side he has inherited from the sacked Marco Silva fell to a ninth defeat in 13 games – and were well beaten.

Watford’s manager in seven years had the excuse of an injury list stretching to 10 players but this still amounted to a serious reality check.

Despite Gracia selecting a virtually full-strength team, Watford rarely looked like recovering from Stephens’ early goal.

Victory came as a welcome relief to Saints boss Mauricio Pellegrino but cup progress still did not stop the manager receiving flak from some fans after he brought off Sofiane Boufal and introduced Maya Yoshida as part of a back five in the second period.

Pellegrino, whose Saints surrendered a two-goal advantage against the same opponents at Vicarage Road a fortnight earlier, explained his decision.

“We have in our mind the last game 15 days ago and we were winning 2-0 and Watford, with direct play, caused a lot of problems,” he said.

“When you move one player to the back three you will lose the ball if you don’t manage the ball properly.

“It’s a risk but in this moment you have to solve the most important thing to be stronger and I think we did more or less okay.”

Pellegrino added: “We want to progress in this competition and I think in the dressing room our feeling is that we are growing as a team, little by little.

“We are playing much better with the ball and without the ball.

“We couldn’t kill the game but I think we deserved to win.

“We suffered at the end and they were dangerous with direct crosses but we