JAMES BEATTIE probably won't win a Mr Popularity contest in Gillingham - but his grin after Saints eased their way into the fourth round of the Worthington Cup showed that wouldn't bother him one bit.

As Saints safely negotiated another potential banana skin, Beattie emerged with a mile-wide grin after a heck of a night; scoring Saints' opener, laying the second on a platter and generally getting up the noses of the home crowd all night.

But his smile at the end was that of a cheeky jack-the-lad, a wind-up merchant who revelled in riling the opposition.

Having been stoked up by chairman Paul Scally's programme outburst as part of his war with the local media, supporters groups and just about anyone else, a small but volatile Priestfield crowd was looking for a hate target, and Beattie duly provided them with it.

They were howling just eight minutes in when Beattie went down under Guy Butters's awkward challenge, although there can have been few complaints.

As Chris Marsden slid a cute pass through the advancing defence, the former Pompey defender allowed Beattie to get goal-side, and his attempt to put the toothpaste back in the tube ended with a smeary, messy challenge which only had one outcome as Beattie slammed home the resulting spot-kick.

Beattie then got himself crossed off several Christmas card lists five minutes later when referee Andy D'Urso dropped the ball 15 yards inside the Gillingham half after an injury stoppage, and Beattie's attempt to concede possession back by whacking the ball out for a goal-kick fizzed a yard wide of the goal!

The crowd thought Beattie was having an unsporting and cheap shot at goal and let him have it, but all it did was stoke him up.

Eight minutes from time, he had the last laugh when he locked onto Anders Svensson's pass, put Roland Edge back on his heels and drove in a cross for Marian Pahars to plant a header down and wide of Vince Bartram.

Beattie milked the applause from the Saints' fans, and he had every right to do, in a strutting performance of a striker sniffing confidence and living high on it.

Beattie has now scored four goals in four games and, with his little sidekick, Pahars, netting again, the pair are almost daring manager Stuart Gray to bring in another striker.

Pahars was at his infuriating best. At one point he almost embarrassed Adrian Pennock as he turned on the after-burners to leave the former Cherries defender looking as though he was running in wet sand. But Pahars's finish was neither fish-nor-fowl, as he drilled the ball too close to Bartram, with Beattie screaming for more angle on the ball across the face of goal.

Saints will look back on a thoroughly professional night's work. The job was a good 'un, as they did their homework and stood up to what they knew Gillingham would throw at them.

On a pitch as narrow as a bigot's mind, width was at a premium, and Gillingham tried to kick the door in down the middle.

It needed Claus Lundekvam and Garry Monk to stand firm, and stand they did.

Lundekvam was his usual calm unruffled self, which must have been a great blessing to Monk in his first outing of the season.

Although Gillingham lost Iffy Onourah after just nine minutes, Monk still had Paul Shaw and Marlon King to contend with, but he stood up to his task, which mainly consisted of staying strong in the middle and heading the ball away.

With Wayne Bridge and skipper Jason Dodd - in for his first game of the season - tying up the flanks, Gillingham rarely, if ever, got round the back and the task of Lundekvam and Monk was made easier as Gillingham were always forced to cross the ball from in front of them.

On the two occasions Lundekvam and Monk did relax their vigil, Chris Hope powered a header over from a first-half corner, and Paul Shaw forced Paul Jones into his first crash-action save two minutes from time, itself an indication of how Saints had kept the frisky Gills at bay.

Saints played some neat, incisive football, and their ball retention was a key element in taking the sting out of Gillingham.

The passing was crisp but always made that much easier by the work put in off the ball to provide the man in possession with options.

Kevin Davies again worked the right flank manfully, putting in his share of defensive spadework while also proving too much of a handful for Roland Edge.

Saints did their job so efficiently that they ensured this game won't be one to linger long in the memory. They simply put the lid on it early on.

Other than the result, the biggest plus was Dodd's full monty of 90 minutes in his first outing of the season.

He settled back in the groove and now presents manager Gray with the pleasant dilemma of where to play Rory Delap.