GORDON STRACHAN was forced to separate Graeme Souness and Saints first-team coach Dennis Rofe in the St Mary's tunnel following Saints' 2-0 win over Blackburn.

Rovers boss Souness and Rofe had a heated argument on the way back to the dressing room over the sending-off of Andy Cole.

Eye-witnesses say the duo finally had to be parted by the Saints manager as tempers boiled over.

Strachan was an international team-mate of Souness for Scotland and simply said: "If you have two friends arguing - in a pub or anywhere - you stand in the way to stop them. That's it, it's as simple as that."

Souness, who could now face an FA charge, axed Rofe as reserve-team boss at Saints when he replaced Dave Merrington as manager in 1996.

The Blackburn boss claimed Rofe had encouraged referee Steve Bennett to send off Cole after the latter raised his hands to both Rory Delap and Michael Svensson.

Souness said: "I don't take kindly to members of opposition staff trying to get my players sent-off.

"He was encouraging the referee to send my player off and that's not on.

"His business is to look after his players and my business is look after my players. I don't think what happened is correct."

When told his clash had been captured on video, Souness, who gestured at Rofe to come into the tunnel, smiled: "If they've got it on film, I must have done it."

Cole was sent-off shortly after James Beattie had ended Saints' four-match goal drought with a 25-yard free-kick.

There was an off-the-ball incident and television replays showed that Cole clearly lashed out as a melee involving around ten players ensued.

Some felt centre-back Svensson was lucky to stay on the pitch after pushing Cole back.

Bennett confirmed he would be studying the video before deciding whether he would refer the incident to the FA.

Neither manager was prepared to comment on Cole's sending-off.

Souness said: "I'm not sitting on the fence, I didn't see what led to the sending-off. I saw the melee, I saw the players pushing and shoving but I will have to wait until I see the video before I comment."

Strachan said: "I didn't really see what happened. It happens in a split second. My version might be wrong, I might pick out the wrong man."

Cole exchanged words with Strachan as he left the pitch, but the Saints boss explained: "I just said 'it's disappointing to see you walking off, Andy, because you are a fantastic player'. It was genuinely meant.

"There was a good footballer out there going off the pitch, and the way the first-half went you did not want good players coming off the pitch."

The fall-out from the Cole incident somewhat over-shadowed an outstanding debut by 19-year-old Frenchman Leandre Griffit, who replaced Jo Tessem late on and rounded off Saints' win with an excellent goal.

In doing so, he became the first Saints player in 12 matches this season apart from Beattie and the suspended Kevin Phillips to score.