RODRIGUEZ FIRES DOUBLE AS SAINTS HUMILIATE DONS
WHATEVER the rest of the season brings, this will be one thing Ronald Koeman will always have over his nemesis Louis van Gaal. A year ago, Van Gaal’s Manchester United came to MK Dons in the Capital One Cup and were thrashed 4-0, the most humiliating moment of the Dutchman’s Old Trafford reign. The performance of Koeman’s Southampton side here could not have been more different. They ruthlessly put the Championship strugglers to the sword and in the process energised their own flagging season. Two apiece from Jay Rodriguez, Sadio Mane and Shane Long put Saints into the last-16 draw with the bare minimum of fuss. It was evident from the first whistle that Southampton were a class above. On five minutes, Rodriguez collected the ball 40 yards from goal and decided to just go for it. He accelerated past Lee Hodson and Kyle McFadzean before cutting inside Antony Kay and bending an exquisite shot inside the far post for his first domestic goal since March 2014. Those horrendous 16 months of inactivity with a cruciate ligament injury now firmly behind him, Rodriguez is again staking his claim for an England place. A second soon followed. Kay’s awful clearance found its way to Mane, about 25 yards out, and the Senegal star eased past the last defender before dinking the ball over keeper David Martin. A third was inevitable and it came on 25 minutes in a fine move that started at the back. Left back Matt Targett rolled the ball along the line to Steven Davis, who turned and lofted a ball over the top to locate Shane Long. He glanced up, squared to Mane, who cut back inside Kay and fired past Martin. The punishment continued after the interval when McFadzean fouled Long inside the box and Rodriguez converted from the spot. Long deserved a goal and it duly arrived when McFadzean’s clearance under pressure hit him and bounced in. And the Irishman claimed a second as he ran onto Davis’s through ball and finished with aplomb.