NEITHER OF THESE TEAMS had read the script. Southampton, FA Cup finalists and already guaranteed a place in Europe, had an excuse for taking things easy, while Leeds United, 6-1 winners in their previous away game against Charlton Athletic, were supposed to be freshly committed to preserving their Barclaycard Premiership status under Peter Reid, the caretaker manager. Instead, it was Southampton who looked as if they had everything to play for while Leeds might easily have suffered a reversal of that 6-1 victory at The Valley. The only thing that surprised nobody was the ninth sending-off in the career of Alan Smith.

Reid would like the job full-time and is understood to be on a handsome sum for each point gained by the team, so he was doubly disappointed and could not defend either Smith (“it’s happened too many times”) or the performance of the rest of his team. “They got out-fought, outworked, outbattled, outpassed, outscored, out-everything,” he said. “I can’t protect that performance. I don’t want to. I might be here for just a short time, but those players have got long contracts and they’ve got to get their fingers out. The league table doesn’t lie — look where they are.”

For the record, Leeds lie sixteenth, six points above the relegation places and not arithmetically safe. Southampton’s work-rate surprised Leeds, but not Gordon Strachan, the manager, who had put his squad through some tough running sessions last week — “just to remind them that they have to work hard to achieve anything”, he said.

They set about Leeds from the kick-off. Brett Ormerod swept in the first when Paul Robinson could only parry Anders Svensson’s shot, then nodded down for James Beattie to scuff in his 23rd of the season on the stroke of half-time.

Seven minutes after the restart, Beattie tricked Danny Mills before setting up Svensson for a well-taken third and Southampton threatened a rout after Smith was sent off on the hour for two senseless fouls in five minutes. Late goals by Harry Kewell and Nick Barmby made the score far more respectable for Leeds.

All in all, a bad day at the office for Reid — and he may not even get to stay there. Was the uncertainty about his own position affecting the team? “The chairman doesn’t make tackles, the players do,” he said. “I wish the chairman did make tackles — he might have won a few.”

Southampton (4-4-2): P Jones 6 — P Telfer 6, C Lundekvam 6, M Svensson 7, W Bridge 6 — F Fernandes 7, M Oakley 7, A Svensson 8 (sub: R Delap, 89min), D Prutton 6 — J Beattie 8, B Ormerod 7. Substitutes not used: A Blayney, P Williams, D Higginbotham, J Tessem. NEXT: Birmingham City (a). FORM: WDDDWL

Leeds United (4-4-2): P Robinson 5 — G Kelly 5, M Duberry 5, D Mills 3 (sub: N Barmby, 56 5), I Harte 4 — H Kewell 5, E Bakke 4, D Matteo 5, J Wilcox 3 — A Smith 4, M Viduka 6. Substitutes not used: N Martyn, J Milner, R Bravo, S Johnson. Booked: Mills, Smith, Bakke, Viduka. Sent off: Smith. NEXT: Fulham (h). FORM: LDWLLL

Shots on target: (h) 10 (a) 5. Fouls: (h) 8 (a) 22. Offsides: (h) 0 (a) 5