Southampton’s Eljero Elia strikes twice to sink spirited Newcastle

Newcastle United fly to Dubai in search of sunshine on Sunday. It seems entirely typical of their recent luck that the latest weather forecast for the United Arab Emirates suggests they will wake up to heavy rain, thick cloud and highs of only 20C on Monday.

As John Carver is discovering, the best laid plans have developed a nasty habit of unravelling fast for those wearing black and white. Since Alan Pardew’s defection to Crystal Palace prompted Carver’s accession as caretaker, Newcastle have played quite well in patches without actually sealing a win.

This was their third defeat in the four games since Pardew departed. As Carver boards the plane for a mini-break so brief that it ends on Thursday morning, he will surely be fearing his hopes of securing the job until the end of the season are ebbing inexorably away.

An understrength Southampton gained a victory which kept them third – and Ronald Koeman’s Champions League dream very much alive – by acclimatising to the north-east chill with a Friday work out at Sunderland’s training ground.

The bracing North Sea air clearly suited the excellent Eljero Elia who scored both the visitors’ goals on an evening which, wholly characteristically, concluded with Newcastle having a decent-looking penalty appeal for handball discounted in stoppage time.

“This win is better than the one against Manchester United because we have some injuries,” said Koeman. “If, in August, people had said we’d be third in the league now I’d have laughed but I’m very, very happy and very delighted.”

Dubbed “the new Mario Balotelli” following some slightly outlandish behaviour in Germany, Elia is a new face in the Southampton ranks but the Dutch winger, recently arrived on loan from Werder Bremen, has not taken long to find his feet. Sure enough he spoilt Newcastle’s bright start by controlling James Ward-Prowse’s pass before unleashing a right-foot shot far too crisp for even Tim Krul to hold.

But until Elia’s first goal as a Saint, and just before that Graziano Pellé chesting a long ball down impressively to liberate Ward-Prowse, Newcastle had looked quicker and slicker.As the ball squirmed beneath the Holland keeper, the supposed “wild child” swivelled on his heels and raced to the away technical area where Koeman waited, arms outstretched. “Elia’s fast and strong and he’s showing a lot of discipline,” said Koeman. “He’s happy to be at Southampton.”

Then self-doubt began intruding and Carver’s team wobbled. They were lucky not to fall further behind when José Fonte out-leaped Fabricio Coloccini and connected with Ward-Prowse’s free-kick. Fortunately for Coloccini, Fonte headed over the bar.

Florin Gardos lifted the Geordie mood, if only temporarily. The Southampton defender looked mortified as his attempted clearance bounced, bizarrely, off Yoan Gouffran before looping into a net otherwise well protected by Newcastle’s blameless academy graduate Fraser Forster.

Regaining a foothold was one thing but maintaining it proved quite another. With Elia continuing to give the Gallowgate End cause for concern and Moussa Sissoko’s counterattacking advances foundering in the face of Fonte, Carver had problems to ponder.

The quest for solutions became increasingly urgent when Shane Long, fresh off the bench, outjumped Coloccini – worryingly vulnerable these days – to another long ball and nodded down to Elia. After holding off a couple of markers he shot beyond Krul, the ball taking a slight deflection off Daryl Janmaat.