Strachan hails his no-frills Saints

Southampton 3 Charlton 2

Strachan told his men to cut the frills from their game and get back to basics. They responded by scoring twice in the Carling Cup on Tuesday to see off south-coast rivals Portsmouth and firing a treble yesterday to claim a dramatic 3-2 victory against Charlton.

In a contest which certainly exceeded its negative billing, the contestants served up a cracker. Saints threw away a two-goal lead before a late rally in which Brett Ormerod bagged the winner four minutes from time.

So goals are resembling London buses for Southampton at the moment none for ages and then a stream of them and Strachan is happy.

"That was more like it," he said. "I said before the Pompey game we were trying to be too sophisticated and weren't ready to go to that level. But our attacking was 10 out of 10 today and it was the first time this season we've been a real threat.

"It was a cracking game of football. Alan Curbishley's obviously disappointed but I sure feel good. The game had everything great chances, great saves and great clearances. It could have swung either way but I thought we deserved our victory."

Michael Svensson got the scoring underway after five minutes, diverting Rory Delap's shot past Dean Kiely from close range. Chances came and went at both ends before James Beattie, who had earlier made a total hash of a one-on-one, squared for Ormerod to notch his first on the stroke of half-time. It was the Scott Parker show for much of the second-half as the England man shone in front of the watching Sven-Goran Eriksson. The Charlton midfielder scored from the edge of the box 28 seconds after half-time and curled in a beauty from 25 yards after 63 mins.

Graham Stuart also rattled the angle of post and bar before Parker popped up on his own goalline to clear Claus Lundekvam's late header. But Ormerod struck in a late scramble to cap a great week for Saints.

Strachan acclaimed Parker's brace, saying: "They scored two wonder goals. There's a lot you can do with coaching but you can't stop sheer brilliance. I was just sitting down after half-time and suddenly the ball was in the top corner. And their second one was a classic. It's stressful when you go from 2-0 to 2-2 but our energy and bravery was good."

Charlton boss Curbishley criticised his side for their dozy start just like in last weekend's defeat by Leeds when the Yorkshiremen grabbed an early lead and clung to it for the rest of the game to win 1-0.

"I'm very disappointed," Curbishley said. "It was like Leeds as they stunned us in the first 10 minutes, got a goal and we didn't get going. I wasn't at all happy with the first-half and we lost the game in the last minute of that half. Coming back from 2-0 was always going to be very difficult. I had a few words at half-time and we got back in it. And we had numerous chances to score a third, including Paolo di Canio just before he came off. We'd have been delighted to get a point but, as it is, we've taken one point out of nine but are still sixth."

SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi, Dodd, Lundekvam, Michael Svensson, Higginbotham, Pahars (Phillips 77), Telfer, Prutton, Delap, Beattie, Ormerod.

CHARLTON: Kiely, Kishishev, Perry, Hreidarsson, Fortune, Stuart, Holland, Parker, Jensen, Euell, Di Canio (Cole 76).

Referee: P Walton (Northamptonshire).