James Beattie broke his goal duck as Saints won their first away game since March - then hailed Gordon Strachan's first year in charge a success.
Beattie kept his nerve in front of the Holte End to fire his first goal of the season in Saints' 1-0 win - from the spot after another televised nightmare for Aston Villa 'keeper Peter Enckelman.
Enckelman, vilified after his howler against Birmingham last month, was unlucky to be given his marching orders after he and defender Alpay combined to bring down Brett Ormerod within 11 seconds of the second-half restart.
But Beattie had to wait more than two minutes before he was able to take the spot kick, which he fired into the bottom left corner, ensuring a miserable debut for substitute 'keeper Stefan Postma.
Beattie said: "There was a lot of time between the foul and the ref blowing his whistle for the penalty to be taken but I just did what I had to do.
"To score a goal in any game is a brilliant feeling, especially when there were about 10,000 Villa fans whistling and trying to put me off."
"You can't totally blank it out when they do that but I had a job to do and I was totally focused, I just made sure I concentrated on putting the ball in the back of the net."
Brett did well to win the penalty but I really wanted to take it. I didn't feel any extra pressure and it was great to get off the mark. I wasn't sure about the decision to send the 'keeper off, that's for the TV people to talk about, but thankfully it gave me a chance to score and I despatched it.
"A lot of things have happened in my life recently but I've got through that and now I can concentrate on scoring goals for Southampton FC. I've got a lot of self confidence, I've never doubted my ability."
On a night when most of the 25,817 crowd were calling for Graham Taylor to resign, Strachan was able to celebrate his first year in charge with a win that put Saints level with his former club Leeds.
Beattie added: "The gaffer has brought so much enthusiasm and experience. A lot of the lads have improved under him over the last 12 months, I know I have.
"Just him being here has given everyone a lift. His personality helps and we saw what we could do when we got on a run around Christmas time last year.
"He made us believe that we can go to places like Chelsea and Tottenham and get results. He's been around for a long time and is well respected within the game as a coach now.
"He's helped us all a lot and I could talk all night about what he's done for me. He's been particularly good at teaching me when it's best to standstill and wait for the ball and when is the time to make the runs, all sorts of stuff really."
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