SAINTS bounced back strongly from their Merseyside mauling to increase the woes of Sheffield Wednesday who remain anchored to the foot of the Premiership.

After a drab first half, Saints took the lead on 53 minutes when Trond Soltvedt set up Hassan Kachloul to rifle home from 20 yards .

Saints survived a major scare 11 minutes from time when Richard Cresswell's eight-yard blast was blocked by Francis Benali with referee Paul Allcock waving away claims for a penalty.

It was a costly miss. With five minutes left, Peter Atherton brought down Soltvedt in the D of the penalty area and the free-kick was teed-up for Matthew Oakley, who clipped the ball round the wall and in off the right-hand post.

Dave Jones gave a late debut to new signing Louis Boa Morte, whose pace and trickery caused immediate problems.

The win put Saints eight points clear of Wednesday, who were without star striker Benito Carbone - he did a runner before the game in anger after being named as a substitute.

It lifted Saints back into the top half of the table and into a healthy position ahead of the two week break.

Earlier in the day they had been handed a tricky Worthington Cup draw against Manchester City.

For the full match report and pictures see tonights copy of the Pink.

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