Ollie Watkins came on to help Aston Villa return to the Champions League with a comfortable 3-0 win over Southampton.
Villa were struggling against already relegated Saints until Watkins opened the scoring just seven minutes after replacing Marcus Rashford and four minutes after Marco Asensio had missed a penalty for a foul on Watkins.
Substitutes Donyell Malen and John McGinn put Southampton ahead (the latter after Asensio missed a second penalty) as Villa made it four wins in a row to move into the top five.
The trip to St Mary's came between Villa's Champions League quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain and Unai Emery's side were looking to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat in the first leg earlier this week.
The Saints, by contrast, had more modest ambitions: to try to avoid being officially labelled as the worst team in Premier League history.
Having become the first club to be relegated with seven games remaining in the season, they now have just six attempts to secure the two points needed to break Derby's record low of 11.
Simon Rusk, appointed as caretaker manager after Ivan Juric's 14-game unsuccessful reign, went into the game with five defenders to shore up the defence.
However, Villa opened the scoring after just 40 seconds when Youri Tielemans passed to Rashford, but Jan Bednarek was quick to block his shot.
Southampton are the bottom scorers in all four divisions with just 23 goals, but they could have gone ahead after 15 minutes when Kyle Walker-Peters' fine pass set up Cameron Archer.
The former Villa striker shrugged off Tyrone Mings but his shot was saved by Emiliano Martinez.
Bednarek came closest to opening the scoring early in the second half when he took a Villa corner and headed the ball inches wide of the crossbar.
In the 65th minute, Rashford curled a free kick too high and was substituted for Watkins moments later.
Three minutes later, Watkins received a pass from Morgan Rodgers and was brought down in the penalty area by Bednarek, but Aaron Ramsdale guessed the direction and saved Asensio's penalty.
However, Watkins soon scored a superb goal, intercepting a pass from Tielemans and expertly flicking it over goalkeeper Ramsdale, which clipped the underside of the crossbar and rolled into the net.
Maylen doubled the lead with a second goal from a Rodgers assist.
In injury time, Asensio was given a chance to make amends for his missed penalty when Jack Stevens brought McGinn down.
Although Ramsdale repeated his success and saved the shot, this time McGinn was on hand to snatch the rebound and breathe life into Villa ahead of the PSG clash.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
