Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thanks for joining our live commentary of Aston Villa's trip to Southampton. I'm Shane and I'll be bringing you all of the action from St Mary's as the Villans hunt the win that will secure their Premier League safety once and for all. And Southampton? Well they're supposedly hunting Europa League qualification, but you wouldn't know it based on their recent results.

Imagine trying to court Kim or Kourtney before ending up with Khloe and this is the problem Southampton have. In a season that for so long threatened Champions League qualification, the Saints have to settle for its less attractive and less important sister - but they may even end up missing out on that!

Yep, Ronald Koeman's side are in such a funk that it makes James Brown look like an introvert. They've won just once from their last six, and lost three of their last four. If I didn't know better you would think that they don't really want to qualify for the Europa League, eh?

That's understandable if you're Arsenal, who have had Champions League every year since 1947 or something, or Spurs, who have had Europa League football every year since 1947 or something, but Southampton, who were in League One a few years ago, don't have the right to turn up their nose at European football.

As it stands they're seventh, and that would take them into the Europa League - but only if Arsenal win the FA Cup. If Aston Villa upset the Gunners at Wembley in two weeks, then the Villains are heading to Europe. You see, they can't settle for seventh and hope that the odds prevail at Wembley; they need to give themselves a kick up the you know what and chase down sixth-placed Tottenham in the final two games.

Problem there is that they need a win to get their top-six bid back on track, and Villa searching for a third successive victory, three points is anything but a foregone conclusion for the hosts here this afternoon, my friends.

Incidentally, the first round of Europa League qualifiers begin on Mars or somewhere next week. This may not be true.

Anywho, let's get down and dirty with some team news shall we? Why not, but first let's have a check on what the boys down at Sports Mole HQ have had to say on this encounter.

SOUTHAMPTON XI: Gazzaniga; Clyne, Fonte, Alderweireld, Bertrand; Wanyama, Davis, Ward-Prowse; Mane, Long, Pelle

ASTON VILLA XI: Given, Bacuna, Vlaar, Okore, Hutton, Westwood, Delph, Cleverley, N'Zogbia, Grealish, Benteke.

SOUTHAMPTON SUBS: K Davis, Yoshida, Elia, Gardos, Reed, Djuricic, Targett

ASTON VILLA SUBS: Guzan, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Senderos, Sanchez, Lowton, Sinclair

Okay so let's start with the visitors, because we're polite, and I can tell you that big Tim Sherwood makes just the one change as Alan Hutton replaces Kieran Richardson in the back four. Christian Benteke, who has netted 11 in his last 10 in all competitions, spearheads the attack. What a resurgence he is enjoying.

On to Saints now and Mr Koeman makes two changes from the 2-0 defeat to Leicester. Firstly, Paulo Gazzaniga retains his selection in nets, which is bizarre because he looked ever so shaky last week. On to the changes now and James Ward-Prowse, who was suspended last week, returns in place of Harrison Reed, while Shane Long replaces Eljero Elia in a three-pronged attack along with Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle.

I had the misfortune of watching Southampton's defeat to Leicester last week. Good game, but the performance from Koeman's side was so cowardly and toothless that it belonged on Jeremy Kyle, in a segment called 'my team is trying to sabotage their Europa League bid'. It was so poor, and the Dutchman will be determined to see a big response today.

However, beating Villa, on this form, is no mean feat because Sherwood continues to be the messiah that the club have needed. They sat in the relegation zone at the time of Paul Lambert's dismissal, and few would have backed against them surviving with the way things were going, but Sherwood has turned their season on its head.

They now sit 14th, four points clear of danger and one more win, to make it three on the bounce, would see them secure their survival and allow them two weeks to focus on Arsenal in the FA Cup final. Well done Mr Sherwood.

DID YOU KNOW? Right, let's look at a few stats prior to kickoff, and did you know that Southampton have only managed one home victory over their West Midlands counterparts in the last six meetings? Yep, a 4-1 win under Nigel Adkins in September. Remember him?

Another interesting stat is that victory would see Villa win three successive Premier League games for the first time in five years. I don't think it's a coincidence that that stat dates back to Martin O'Neill's spell at Villa Park. How the fans would have loved to have him back, but Sherwood is a decent young manager and he's restoring a feel-good factor seldom seen since the now-Republic of Ireland boss left.

PREDICTION: Oooooook so we're 15 minutes from kickoff here, my friends, so let's do what we always do and get a prediction wrong. One point would help Villa eclipse their lowest final total in a Premier League campaign of 38 points from the 2011-12 and 2013-14 campaign, and I'm going for a 1-1 draw. Southampton don't have many goals in them because half of them are mentally on holidays.

Who can both sides look to for a little inspiration then? Well for Villa it's Benteke, isn't it? 11 goals in his last 10, 10 in his last nine Premier League outings. What a resurgence and if Southampton defenders look a little tired it'll be because they had sleepless nights worrying about this bloke. He's lethal.

And who can the hosts look to? Pelle is their leading goalscorer but he's only found the net three times in 2015 - and all three came in April. He's had a poor second half of the season, perhaps coinciding with Southampton's decline, but he's still far and away their biggest goal threat but he needs service.

Last week at the King Power he was given very little to feed off, with Sadio Mane and Eljero Elia failing to give him much action. Long steps in for Elia today so let's see if he works better with the frontman. Personally, I have my doubts.

Both sets of players are out on the field and we're minutes away! Stay tuned.

KICKOFF: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're off on a beautiful day on the South Coast. Sun is shining. It's the weekend. Lovely stuff.

We've seen our first sight of Benteke already, leaping above Fonte to flick Jack Grealish's long ball into the path of Charles N'Zogbia, but the ball just rolls out of play.

OFFSIDE GOAL: This is a poor decision from the linesman as he rules out Graziano Pelle's goal for offside- even though he was clearly onside. It's a hard job been a linesman, as we know, but that should be a bread-and-butter decision for them.

We should Paulo Gazzaniga looked a dodgy goalkeeper earlier on, and he's proven it again. He's come to collect N'Zogbia's corner but he fails to catch it. Fortunately, the referee's whistle had gone for an infringement in the area. It doesn't bode well though.

CHANCE! First big chance of the afternoon and it's Pelle, who saw his goal chalked off a matter of minutes ago. The Italian runs on to Bertrand's over-the-top ball but, with just Given to beat, fired straight at the Irishman. Disappointing finish that. It's not been a good day for him thus far.

CHANCE! Really good, end-to-end clash here at St Mary's as Villa go close to opening the scoring. Benteke, who has 11 in his last 10, runs on to Fabian Delph's neat pass but, instead of going with his left foot, tries to dink it over Gazzaniga with his right and it goes wide. Lord knows why he didn't try it with his right.

Sorry Robbie Fowler but I think you're record of scoring the quickest Premier League hat-trick is gone! What a stunning four-minute spell at St Mary's. Unbelievable. Let's recap the goals before they score again.

Ok, so first, Mane ran on to Pelle's flick-on to tap into an empty net after getting a huge slice of luck with a ricochet. Then, a suicidal back pass from Ron Vlaar was pounced on by Shane Long, who was upended by Shay Given and Mane was on hand to tap into an empty net. Again. But there was nothing fortuitous about his third, as he side-footed past Given from the edge of the box from Long's cut-back to stun the visiting fans - and indeed the home fans. Robbie Fowler is crying somewhere.

I can confirm that he scored that hat-trick in two minutes and 56 seconds. Magnificent.

It would be tempting to think that Villa have been shocking, and they have, but Southampton are playing with a real swagger here. It's their last home game of the season and they're giving their fans a show.

I've had my squad of stats boffins do their research on the quickest all-time hat-tricks in English football history and, bizarrely, Mane doesn't hold that record. Jamie Hayter scored one in two minutes and 29 seconds for Bournemouth 10 years ago.

If there a positive for Villa it's that they're 3-0 down with about an hour of football left to play. Let's see.

Scrap that. There's no positives for Villa here because they've only gone and conceded again. Pelle runs on to Mane's through ball, whose one-on-one is saved by Given, but Long is on hand to tap into an empty net. Again. That's three opens goals that Southampton players have scored into today. That's telling, isn't it? Where are the defenders?

We've reached the half-hour mark and could this rout undermine Villa on the survival trail? Victory would've seen them safe but that won't happen today. Looks like they'll go into final day, and if Hull win at Spurs then it's really, really tense against Burnley next Sunday.

You have to feel sorry for Shay Given because he could do nothing about any of the goals. The defenders in front of him have done nothing to help him today.

What are the Villa defenders doing? Leonardo Bacuna, right-back, channels the spirit of Pele and tries to run the ball out of defence but he's effortlessly tackled by Mane. The attack broke down, but it sums up their riskiness this afternoon.

SHOT! Slightly ambitious from Fabian Delph, who curls over the bar from about 30 yards, but the intention was right. If they are to do the unthinkable then they need a goal before half time.

Oh my lord take a bow Mr Long. He dispossesses Ashley Westwood in midfielder before jogging toward goal and curling over Shay Given from about 35 yards. Three of their five were lucky and avoidable, but Mane's third and Long's second were different class. Well done lads.

Is there anything exception to the rule that would allow Sherwood to make 10 substitutions during the break? At least four, because their defence has been dreadful - but Senderos is one of the subs so putting him on might make things worse.

Westwood is down injured so it gives Sherwood an extra minute or two to think about what curse words he's going to use during the break. There's three minutes added on in any case.

Well, Benteke did pull one back before the break, but you imagine that it's a mere consolation. It was the Southampton fans who celebrated the goal with an ironic cheer because quite a few Villa fans have left.

What can we say about that from Villa? I'm sure Sherwood will be running through his mental Rolodex of curse words right about now to describe that first half, but we'll be a little more PC. It was just, well, shocking. At least three of the goals were self inflicted, with Mane's third and especially Long's second just incredible strikes.

We'll see if Villa can reduce the deficit further in this second half, after Christian Benteke gave them a glimmer of hope just before the break, but it's extraordinarily unlikely.

RESTART: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back underway at St Mary's, my friends. Let's see if Villa can do the unthinkable.

Bizarrely, there's no changes from Sherwood. It's as if he wants his players to suffer more rather than shield them from this mauling. He's entitled to want blood, but he's also a manager and long-term thinking must be his priority - especially with an FA Cup final on the horizon.

SHOT! Half chance for Long to get his hat-trick, as Given comes and punches Clyne's delivery, but it only reaches Long, whose tame effort drops wide. Southampton want more.

Villa have been slightly better in this half. They're enjoying a bit more possession, but you always fear that they're still susceptible at the back.

SUB: Agbonlahor replaces N'Zogbia in Villa's first sub. Incidentally, there's a Villa fan dressed up as the honey monster in the crowd, with his arms crossed. He probably feels a little silly.

Sherwood's post-match interview will be interesting. He's often honest, perhaps a little too honest according to some, but he may have to curb that a little later in order to avoid worsening his side's already frail confidence ahead of a relegation battle AND an FA CUp final. He'll need to choose his words carefully. Villa's season could hinge on it.

SHOT! Long volleys narrowly wide, with Given probably beaten, but there wasn't enough power.

To the credit of Villa fans, quite a few of them are still singing, regardless of the pending result and the afternoon. Well done to them. It's what football is all about. Highs and lows, and if you run off to the train station instead of witnessing the lows then you won't enjoy the highs quite as much.

This is Villa's best spell in the game but it's coming to nothing. They're getting to a certain point and Southampton defenders comfortably repel everything. And I do mean everything. Unlike a certain Premier League player, Villa haven't had a sniff.

SUB: Right there's about 20 minutes left and Southampton sure up the defence now as Maya Yoshida replaces Steve Davis.

SAVE! What an impact that would've been. Yoshida forces Given into a fine save and it's still 5-1.

SHOT! Southampton just purring now and they want a sixth, as Nathaniel Clyne blazed over from an angle. Decent chance that he probably should've struck first time.

This is a brilliant goal, as Mane and Djuricic play a slick one-two, before the former swings in a ball for the unmarked Pelle and the Italian striker smashes a volley into the roof of the net to get in on the act. That one-two though. Get it on MOTD later.

Still all Southampton and, bizarrely, they want seven! These are a ruthless bunch aren't they. No let-up.

SAVE! Good save from Gazzaniga to keep out Agbonlahor from close range, before Westwood blazes over into the Villa fans.

Well, that's all she wrote. Sadly for the neutral, Southampton failed to replicate their first-half showing and only won the second half 1-0 - to make it 6-1 overall. What a rout.

They go sixth, while Villa stay 14th, but they could be just one point clear of safety if Hull go and win this afternoon. Watch this space my friends.

Anywho, thanks for joining Sports Mole's live coverage and enjoy your weekend!