Watkins fires Aston Villa into top five despite penalty pain at Southampton

Ollie Watkins climbed off the substitutes’ bench to help fire Aston Villa back into the Champions League places.

Villa were labouring against the already relegated home side until Watkins struck, seven minutes after replacing Marcus Rashford and four minutes after Marco Asensio had missed a penalty Watkins had won.

Fellow substitutes Donyell Malen and John McGinn put the match beyond Southampton – the latter after Asensio missed a second spot-kick – as Villa made it four straight wins to move into the top five.

Villa’s trip here was sandwiched in between the Champions League quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain. Villa need to overturn a 3-1 deficit in Tuesday’s second leg.

Southampton, by contrast, have the slightly more modest ambition of trying not to become the worst team in Premier League history. Having become the first club to be relegated with as many as seven games of the season remaining, they now have six left to secure the two points required to overhaul Derby’s record-low of 11.

Simon Rusk, appointed interim boss after Ivan Juric’s painful 14-match reign was ended on Monday, went with a back five in a bid to plug their leaky defence.

But Villa opened it up inside 40 seconds when Youri Tielemans played Rashford through on goal, although Jan Bednarek recovered well to block his shot.

Southampton are the lowest scorers in all four divisions with a paltry 23 goals, but they should have taken the lead after 15 minutes when Kyle Walker-Peters’s threaded pass put Cameron Archer in behind. The former Villa striker shrugged off the attentions of Tyrone Mings, only for his shot across goal to be beaten away by Emiliano Martínez.

Early in the second half Bednarek came the closest to breaking the deadlock when he met a Villa corner and headed it inches over his own crossbar. Rashford curled a free-kick too high and was then substituted for Watkins.

Three minutes later, Watkins was put through by Morgan Rogers and felled in the area by Bednarek, but Aaron Ramsdale guessed correctly to keep out Asensio’s spot-kick.

However, Watkins soon conjured up a superb goal after latching on to Tielemans’s pass and expertly lifting it over the onrushing Ramsdale, the ball grazing the underside of the crossbar as it looped in.

Malen rifled home a sweet second across Ramsdale after being teed up by Rogers. In stoppage time, Asensio had the chance to make amends for his penalty miss after McGinn was tripped by Jack Stephens.

Although Ramsdale went the same way with the same outcome, this time McGinn was on hand to snaffle the rebound and give Villa a spring in their step ahead of PSG’s visit.

Unai Emery said he needs to make a decision on his penalty taker for the second leg against the French champions after Asensio’s double failure. “We have our penalty shooters,” he said. “The first one is Marcus Rashford, the second is Marco Asensio, the third is Youri Tielemans, John McGinn or Ollie Watkins.

“Marco decided to take the second because the first one he failed, it was revenge for him. He missed it. We have to accept it and now we are going to decide for the next match.

“We are trying to set clear our demands and our way to achieve it. They did a fantastic job from minute one to minute 90,”

Rusk said: “We showed a lot of grit for 60 or 70 minutes against a top team. We can be pleased with a lot of that. We’re really disappointed with the goals, but we have to respect a Champions League quarter-final team and respect where we’re at and respond to that. Everyone could see the lads have given their all.”