THEY may not be Rupert Lowe's favourite club, but Aston Villa did Saints a favour by thumping pitiful Pompey.

At least that is one way to look at the 3-0 mauling of Harry Redknapp's side at Villa Park.

Pompey's third away defeat of the season was a reminder that while wins at Fratton Park are all very well, they just cannot do the business on the road.

Now they will have to come to St Mary's on Saturday without a Premiership away win in six months, and fresh from arguably the worst performance of Redknapp's reign.

Redknapp put a post-match gag on his players after a listless display that beggared belief.

Granted, the form book is irrelevant on derby day and Redknapp will demand a significant improvement during Saturday's High Noon showdown.

But after picking up useful points at Norwich and Middlesbrough, Pompey are beginning to look like the side that had to wait until the end of March for the first of last season's two away wins.

Saints will now be more confident of adding to Pompey's away-day blues but Villa would have beaten most sides on Saturday.

Maybe they were fired up by the news that they have been charged by the Premier League following Saints chairman Lowe's allegation that James Beattie has been tapped up about a move to Villa Park.

"We'll defend it vigorously because we haven't done anything wrong," said O'Leary. "I was asked whether we were interested in signing Beattie and I gave an honest comment. It was a throw-away line and if we're going to be charged on those grounds, the Premier League offices will never shut."

Villa put the off-field dispute with Saints behind them to outplay Pompey. Juan Pablo Angel and Carlton Cole were too hot to handle for the same back four that had kept Wayne Rooney at bay a week earlier, and Villa were just as strong in all other departments.

OK, so there was the new Premiership ball to get used to, and a rare early kick-off, but there could be no excuses for the ineptitude of Pompey's display.

So bad were they that this match was over as a contest by half-time.

Midfielder Peter Whittingham was allowed to tap home his first Premiership goal completely unmarked after Angel had helped a Cole cross to the back post on 18 minutes.

Just seven minutes later Angel doubled Villa's lead when he evaded Primus and Dejan Stefanovic before shooting back across goal, unerringly into the far corner for his fifth of the season.

It was effectively game over when, five minutes before the break, Nolberto Solano bent in the third Villa goal after a feeble clearance from Stefanovic.

Ironically, Redknapp had been named as manager of the month for October the day before his 900th game as a manager.

"The last time I got manager of the month we won 5-1 so I don't believe that's got anything to do with it, but if I win it again it'll probably mean we'll be safe at the end of the season," he said. "That's all I care about. People were saying we could go fifth with a win at Villa but before this game I worked out that we need to average a point a game to stay up."

Redknapp hopes to have Berger back for the Saints clash, when he will be hoping for a positive reaction to Saturday's mauling.

He added: "We've got a big week coming up but there weren't a lot of positives at Villa, just a massive gulf in class."