Saints 2 Bury 0

The caretaker managers had just one objective - to make sure Saints were in the fifth round of the FA Cup ready for when the new boss takes over.

If they got there by playing some great football and sweeping League 2 strugglers Bury aside, then all the better. But the most important thing, for the club more than anybody, was to see the team through.

If they could oversee a win over Norwich in the league tomorrow as well, it would be a great help. In terms of the timing of a successor to George Burley, these two results will certainly influence proceedings.

Two wins and there is no rush, two defeats and a new man needs to be in place by the end of the week. That's just the way football works.

One of the major justifications for backing Burley when others have called for his head has always been the question of who else would you get to take over at Saints.

There has been no shortage of applicants but many of the candidates are the names you expect and see linked with every managerial vacancy. The real task for Saints is to find somebody as good as Burley, or even better.

But, as was pointed out at the weekend, some realism needs to be applied to the situation.

The blunt facts are that the new man will not earn a comparatively huge wage, will not have money to spend in the transfer window and will not have a budget to bring in a load of his own staff.

And, if there is no fresh investment in the club in the next few months, the new manager faces a massive cut to his playing and backroom staff budget in the summer.

That's not negativity - it's just telling it the way it is.

You are unlikely to get many big names applying for the job, but it doesn't mean you can't get a good manager. There are plenty of them out there and interested in the job.

Saints still are a club with massive potential but it will be a manager still with potential himself rather than a glorious track record who will want this post.

At least he will have the chance to take Saints a stage further in the FA Cup.

In truth, Saints didn't deserve to win this tie. They were well below par and looked as though the departure of Burley had affected them.

In the first half, they looked nervous and were sloppy in possession.

There were lapses in concentration and Bury were comfortably better and should have established a lead.

But they didn't and, after the break, Saints stepped it up a gear.

The introduction of Rudi Skacel due to an injury to Darren Powell livened things up and, though both of Saints' goals and their clean sheet owed more to luck than judgement at times, they did make it through.

Saints could have been behind after just three minutes when Richie Baker curled a 25-yard free-kick round the wall but against the post.

Saints received another let-off five minutes later, when a total lapse allowed Baker through on goal, but Kelvin Davis made the save and was happy to see the rebound go wide.

In the second half - and having lost both centre halves to injury - Saints crept back into it.

For the first time, the hard-working and organised Bury side were sitting a little too deep. Every time Saints came forward, they got ten men behind the ball and held a line on the edge of their own box.

Saints had precious few ideas to break them down but their possession put Bury under heavy pressure.

On 72 minutes, the breakthrough came when Surman picked up the ball 20 yards out and fired a right-footed shot towards goal.

It was going well wide but took a massive deflection off a Bury defender and rolled agonisingly into Jim Provett's bottom left hand corner.

Bury weren't quite done, though, and, just a couple of minutes later, Andy Bishop met a cross from the right with a near-post header that rattled the bar.

The game was more open as Bury pressed for an equaliser,which suited Saints, and they added a second to kill off the game.

Again it was fortunate as referee Stuart Attwell adjudged that Ben Futcher had hauled down Stern John in the box, which looked rather dubious.

Grzegorz Rasiak stepped up and produced a dreadful penalty that was soft, down the middle and duly saved. Attwell was very generous in overlooking Saints' massive encroachment into the area and Rasiak had time to control and fire in a shot from the rebound.

Provett saved again - but he couldn't stop the third attempt being bundled home by Rasiak.

That goal killed the game.

It may not have been the manner of victory Dodd and Gorman wanted to see, but it was the right result.

And, ultimately, that is what they were asked to produce.