GRZEGORZ Rasiak celebrated his birthday with a first goal in 14 games to hand Southampton a 1-0 win against Coca-Cola Championship strugglers Scunthorpe.

Rasiak, 29 today, scored 21 goals in all competitions for the Saints last season to help fire them into the play-off places, however the Poland striker has been unable to rediscover that goalscoring touch this season as the team too have suffered indifferent form to sit in mid-table.

George Burley's team had failed to win in their previous five league fixtures, however Rasiak's first-half strike, following some neat play between Andrew Surman and Bradley Wright-Phillips, put paid to that run of results and lifted the south coast club to within five points of the play-off places.

For Scunthorpe the defeat continues their horrible run of form as they have now managed just one win from their past 15 league games, which leaves them in the relegation zone.

Burley made two enforced changes to the team that defeated Leicester 2-0 in the FA Cup last weekend.

Inigo Idiakez returned to the starting line-up for the first time in almost two months after being sidelined by an Achilles injury to replace Youssef Safri, who is on African Nations Cup duty with Morocco, while new signing Andrew Davies made his Saints debut in place of the injured Darren Powell.

Scunthorpe boss Nigel Adkins named an unchanged team after goalkeeper Joe Murphy and full-back Marcus Williams passed late fitness tests as they looked to bounce back from defeat against Preston last weekend, which sent them out of the FA Cup.

Both teams began in a positive fame of mind, trading efforts on goal.

Iron striker Paul Hayes attempted to catch the hosts off guard just seconds after the opening whistle with a cheeky 25-yard strike, which Kelvin Davis saved, before Idiakez, Wright-Phillips and Surman each shot marginally wide for Saints.

The game continued to flow with Jack Cork forcing another save out of Davis before the breakthrough finally came in the 25th minute.

Surman played a quick one-two with Wright-Phillips, before the South Africa-born midfielder whipped in a cross which left Rasiak with the simplest of tasks to tap home the game's opening goal - just his second at St Mary's this season.

Despite falling behind the visitors continued to probe away at the Saints defence with Matthew Sparrow's close-range header saved by Davis as the hosts reached the interval with their lead intact.

After the break Rasiak missed a golden opportunity to double his side's advantage when he broke clear of his marker to head a Gregory Vignal cross at goal, but Murphy was on hand to save.

With an hour gone Burley replaced his goalscorer with Stern John and while Scunthorpe remained an able attacking threat they were increasingly being restricted to long-range shots at goal with Sparrow, Cork and Ian Morris all trying their luck.

Morris then had a late chance to grab a point from a free-kick, but his effort was easily saved by Davis as Saints grabbed an overdue win.

All the reaction to Saints' win in Monday's Daily Echo.