KEVIN KEEGAN'S first managerial visit to St Mary's must have revived memories of his playing days as Saints played some great football and dished out a comprehensive mauling.

The only problem for Keegan was that it was his Manchester City side that were on the receiving end.

For the first time in the Premiership this season, Saints' football was sleek, silky and, at times, down right sexy.

Their first-half performance was a masterclass, the only thing missing was the hatful of goals they should have scored.

To be fair to Keegan, he admitted so himself.

"At half time we were saying the first half was horrific, at least the second half was only poor," he said.

"We weren't even bothered to challenge for short corners, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"I know one thing though - we got beat by a side that deserved to beat us on the day.

"What hurts more is this is one of my former clubs. I enjoyed my two years here. I think they'll struggle to get a team together like we had then with people like Alan Ball and Mick Channon who really cared about the club.

"But Saints played very, very well and we mustn't lose sight of that in the fact that we were shocking.

"Apart from Peter Schmeichel not many of the players came out of the game with much credit. Southampton could have scored four or five. They had everything we didn't."

For the second time in a week it was Brett Ormerod who netted the vital goals while Fabrice Fernandes ran the show in Saints' totally dominant midfield.

After his hat-trick against Second Division Tranmere on Wednesday night, Ormerod was asked whether he could score against Premiership opposition - in this match he answered with a resounding 'yes'.

He grabbed his first after only 45 seconds - Saints second in under a minute in a week.

Wayne Bridge, who again produced an outstanding performance to give Sven Goran Eriksson something to think about for the two upcoming England internationals, provided a left-wing cross. Ormerod got across Sylvain Disitin and headed past Peter Schmeichel who could only stand and watch as the ball sailed past him and into the bottom corner.

The former Manchester United 'keeper was to have plenty of work to come as he produced a string of brilliant saves to keep his side in the match.

Bridge warmed his hands with a shot which typified the difference in Southampton's performance - rather than controlling and looking for a pass or a cross, he hit a shot first time and Schmeichel had to be strong to beat it away.

Fernandes who, bar a couple of occasions when he got a bit greedy, was once again a creative force to be reckoned with, hit a curling shot which needed a slight deflection and a fingertip save from Schmeichel to turn it on to the post.

The same player came close again in the first half when the great Dane was forced to beat out his near-post stinger while Schmeichel made two more outstanding saves to deny Ormerod, the first at full stretch and the second from point-blank range.

The worry for Saints was that, despite their complete dominance, they would go in at half time just 1-0 up.

But Ormerod allayed those fears with his second goal of the afternoon as Bridge chipped a measured pass into his path. After Schmeichel had blocked the first shot, he gratefully slammed home the rebound.

There was no chance for him to repeat his hat-trick heroics though as he picked up a knock in a challenge by Jihai Sun and was replaced by Marian Pahars - who was promptly red-carded five minutes from time for a second bookable offence.

His first yellow has caused much confusion. It appeared to be a mistake as Pahars put in an honest tackle but ,after the game the referee said it was for unsporting conduct, even though he could clearly be seen telling Pahars on the pitch it was because he went in two footed.

The second was for diving. It was certainly debatable. Pahars did get a slight tug from Lucien Mettomo but didn't help his own case by throwing himself to the ground as if his legs had been taken away.

That soured an otherwise wonderful afternoon for Saints, who had several more chances to added a third in the second half - most notably Fernandes's shot which clipped the top of the bar with Schmeichel beaten, Pahars lobbing the ball into the 'keeper's hands when through on goal and James Beattie missing the ball from three yards out when any touch would have been a goal.

But this was a day and a performance to remember. Saints were awesome, Man City were awful - but you wouldn't hear anybody at St Mary's complaining.