Doncaster 0-2 Southampton: Surman's out to avoid a scrap

Andrew Surman is determined to avoid Groundhog Day at Southampton - and save his fingernails from another round of torture in May.

Surman's nails have only just returned to normal length after Saints' mad scrambleto Championship safety last season.

The winger helped secure Southampton only their second league win of the season at the Keep moat with a late penalty to ease Jan Poortvliet's pups out of the bottom three.

It condemned Doncaster to their fourth successive defeat.

Surman said: "We definitely don't want a relegation battle creeping in again. It's still early in the season but I remember saying that last season we'd be alright because we had loads of games left.

"But slowly and surely the games start to eat away at you and suddenly you find yourselves near the bottom and in a relegation scrap." Saints should have been out of sight by half-time as they finally began to play in the way Poortvliet has been preaching.

But they finally took the lead five minutes into the second period when David Mc Goldrick beat Neil Sullivan with a low shot that took a hefty deflection off Matt Mills.

Saints added a second when Richie Wellens was harshly adjudged to have brought down Adam Lallana in the box, with Surman making no mistake.

Surman missed a third when his penalty, after a foul on him by Sam Hird, was saved by Sullivan.

Donny boss Sean O'Driscoll said: "I'm despondent and I'd probably kick the cat if I had one. We're all disappointed, which is understandable."

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