JOEY Barton began what could be the biggest 10 days of his career by making a goalscoring contribution to Manchester City's FA Cup comeback win over Southampton.

With Steve McClaren due to name his squad for England's February 7 friendly with Spain on Friday, Barton could not have chosen a better time to fire home his sixth goal of the campaign.

The 24-year-old has certainly been one of the Premiership's most effective midfielders this term, although the decision to celebrate his goal in first-half stoppage time by sliding in front of the Southampton fans suggests a certain element of immaturity still lingers within the Huyton-born player.

Nevertheless, City were grateful for his efforts as they collected a deserved victory that looked unlikely when Nicky Weaver gifted Southampton the lead, the hosts eventually coasting home thanks to efforts from Darius Vassell and DaMarcus Beasley either side of Barton's strike.

There was no sense of Cup fever around a half-full Eastlands at kick-off even though City, given a favourable draw, are decent bets to at least emulate their quarter-final appearance of 12 months ago.

As their long-suffering fans are only too aware, no side is more capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory than their own, so it could hardly have been much of a surprise when the Championship opponents took the lead.

Having kept his promise to play é10million-rated defender Gareth Bale, Saints boss George Burley had been rewarded with an enterprising start.

It was the south coast outfit who had come closest to breaking the deadlock, when Weaver scooped David McGoldrick's effort over. Still, they could not have expected to be gifted the opener in quite the manner they were.

Georgios Samaras had just failed to make any connection with Stephen Ireland's astute through ball when Southampton quickly moved the ball from one end of the field to the other.

There seemed to be no imminent danger from a City point of view as Micah Richards shadowed Jones' run towards McGoldrick's punt forward. Suddenly though, Weaver appeared on the edge of the box for no apparent reason meaning that when Jones reached the loose ball first, he had an unguarded net to lob into.

After suffering a three-goal hiding on home soil by Blackburn last week, if the Blues had been behind for any length of time, panic might have set in.

Persistence

Instead, Hatem Trabelsi's persistence allowed him to get the better of Bale in the Saints box just three minutes later and the Tunisian fed Vassell, who promptly fired home his third goal of a barren season, or a second in three games, depending how you want to look at it.

In Bale - whose best moment came late on when he forced an excellent save out of Weaver - and City's England defender Micah Richards, the game boasted the two most talked about teenagers in England just now.

However, the pair were upstaged by Ireland who, despite being stationed on the left flank, was behind most of the home side's more inventive moves.

And, having seen his earlier good work go to waste thanks to Samaras' lack of awareness, 20-year-old Ireland found a more effective partner in Barton when he embarked on another mazy run in first-half stoppage time.

Ireland had already beaten three men when he faced a wall of Southampton defenders on the edge of the area. Calmly, he rolled a pass through to Barton, who kept his cool in equally impressive fashion to net his sixth goal of the campaign.

It was the perfect time for City to seize the initiative and, after a largely sterile start to the second period, Beasley added another when he beat Kelvin Davis to a long ball from Dunne, who had been a bulwark in the home defence all afternoon.

Beasley's slight frame may not be ideally suited to the robust nature of Premiership combat but his quick feet were too much for Davis, who turned to see the USA international tap into an empty net.

From then on, it was just a question of winding the clock down for City boss and England Under-21 coaching candidate Stuart Pearce, who introduced French youngster Djamal Abdoun for his debut two minutes from time.