AS DRESSING room battle-cries go, it was hardly the most blood-curdling of shouts - "Taxi for Mr Carbone!"

But, as those words echoed through the corridor a full hour before kick-off, Saints knew they were on a winner.

At first Dave Jones and his men thought it was a joke, perhaps a Wednesday player having a laugh at the expense of the temperamental Italian.

In fact it transpired that their ace striker had stormed away from the ground after being named as a substitute - a fact exclusively revealed in The Pink!

And, as the full enormity of the walk-out dawned with the exchange of team-sheets, Saints knew the game was theirs for the taking. Surveying the list of names - many of them unknowns - they realised there was no-one to fear.

For the first 45 minutes however it looked as though Carbone might have had the right idea saying he did not want to sit and watch the match!

Wednesday sat deep and showed little adventure as if in recognition that their best hope of a goal was being driven towards Gatwick, bound for Italy and an uncertain future - a case of Benito Cargone!

Saints laboured in the heat but there was more perspira-tion than inspiration in a dreary first half which bore more than a passing resemblance to their last home outing against Newcastle. But, just as they had done against the Magpies, Saints looked a different side after the break as they came out pumped up and ready to have a go.

The very stale stalemate was broken on 53 minutes when Trond Soltvedt broke through the middle and set up Hassan Kachloul, who fired just inside the right-hand post from 16 yards.

From then on there was only one team in it as Saints piled on the agony for woeful Wednesday, who showed plenty of spirit but little real belief that they could claw it back.

It was an empty look of fear and foreboding that the Southampton players remembered only too well from the mirror a year ago when they too had just one point from six matches.

Confidence is such an essential ingredient and Kachloul's strike provided a power surge which sparked the home side into life.

Marian Pahars fizzed and crackled like a loose electrical wire which the Owls defence seemed scared to grasp.

Stuart Ripley picked up where he left off against Newcastle by whipping over a succession of dangerous deep crosses, with much of his supply coming from a resurgent Matthew Oakley.

Soltvedt again bombed on to support the battling Mark Hughes, who enjoyed being back up front in place of the injured Kevin Davies as Saints went for the kill.

They found it hard though to get past the solid central pairing of Emerson Thome and Jon Newsome plus Peter Atherton's muscle on the right.

At the other end the Saints defence was largely untested with the only real threat likely to come from any failings on their own part.

There was just the one lapse which more confident opposition would surely have punished.

It came 11 minutes from time when a long ball forward from Niclas Alexandersson dropped for Petter Rudi eight yards out and all alone in front of goal.

It looked a tapin but he bottled it. There is no other way of describing his clear reluctance to take responsibility which is a classic symptom of early season strife.

With only Paul Jones to beat and the goal at his mercy he tried to set up Richard Cresswell, whose blast hit Francis Benali at point-blank range with appeals for handball falling on deaf ears.

The Saints response was to throw on new signing Luis Boa Morte whose pace and direct running made him an instant hit with the fans. He was electrifying and frightened the life out of the Owls defence.

It was his driving run through the middle which set up the killer second five minutes from time as he played in Soltvedt.

The Norwegian was bursting through on goal when he was cynically felled by Atherton in the D of the penalty area. The defender was lucky not to see red although the retreating bodies probably made it the correct decision.

In any case Saints administered a far more fitting form of justice as Boa Morte tapped the ball for Ripley to stop dead and Oakley clipped a superb 20-yard shot round the wall and in off the right-hand post.

At the end it was hard not to feel sympathy for Wednesday's dignified manager Danny Wilson who is now going through the same torture as Dave Jones did at this stage of last season with just one point from six games.

By contrast Saints have more points than they collected by mid-November last year and crucially they have an eight-point cushion over Wednesday which, they know from experience, can take a long time to claw back.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.