Saints got their fingers burned in a Forest fire - but it was their own fault for carelessly throwing away the match!

They looked to have the game comfortably won through James Beattie's 66th-minute diving header, his third goal in as many days.

But they were hit by two flukes in the space of seven minutes, with a case for both to be classed as own goals.

The first on 71 minutes saw livewire David Prutton evade a lunge by Beattie on the halfway line to burst clear as Southampton were caught quickly on the break.

He was held up by Claus Lundekvam but let fly from 20 yards. The ball looped up off the Norwegian's block and just evaded the dive of Paul Jones to fly into the top right corner.

The second was even more outrageous. German teenager Eugen Bopp cutely backheeled for Stern John to drill in from 14 yards and Jones dived to his right to push the shot away.

It hit Jack Lester at point-blank range but even then the rebound looked to be going wide until it hit Jones in the face and spun crazily into the empty net.

By then though the game had become thoroughly disjointed by a stream of substitutions from both sides - one of which led directly to the opening goal.

It was hardly the kind of immediate impact Riccardo Scimeca was hoping to make with his first touch though as his loose pass was intercepted well by Kevin Davies.

He burst through and his lay-off deflected across goal for Beattie to dive in and nod home at the far post.

However the numerous changes meant there were probably more clues to be gained from the opening hour which saw Saints ride their luck early on before recovering to dictate the game in the second half.

The pattern was set after two minutes when Jones made a fine stop from Lester's header, and the striker then had a spinning volley disallowed for offside.

Forest were fired up by the presence of former manager David Platt who received fearful personal abuse on his first return to the City Ground since quitting to become England under-21 coach.

Saints defender Wayne Bridge who will have done his cause no harm at all. He looked solid in defence and got forward well drawing a superb save from Ward with a right-foot curler.

And his piercing ball up the left enabled Beattie to nick the ball away from the keeper rushing out of his area. But as he turned the ball towards the empty net Chris Doig got back swiftly to clear.

Anders Svensson showed a flash of his shooting power with a 20-yard effort just wide and Rory Delap had a header disallowed for a foul in a crowded goalmouth as Saints stepped up the tempo towards the break.

Stuart Gray's men took charge after the re-start with Ward again denying Beattie with a full-length save from a powerful 25-yard free-kick.

The thread of the game was lost in the final half hour. Saints thought they had snatched an injury-time equaliser when Kevin Gibbens smashed a 15-yard shot which looked a certain goal, but Ward made an astonishing reflex fingertip save.