Shane Long capped his 100th appearance for Southampton by bundling in a stoppage-time winner to see off Norwich in a dire FA Cup third-round replay. The Saints striker pounced at the second attempt after keeper Michael McGovern pushed out his initial header. Championship visitors Norwich, who have won just once in seven games, did not manage a single shot on target. Saints will now host Premier League rivals Arsenal in the fourth round on Saturday, 28 January (17:30 GMT). Saints have struggled for consistency since manager Claude Puel arrived from Nice last summer - which is perhaps not surprising given the Frenchman has made 187 changes to his starting XI in 32 games in charge.

Despite the Premier League club hoping to arrest an alarming slide of one win in six matches, Puel was not afraid to show confidence in his young players for the visit of struggling Championship side Norwich. Four top-flight defeats on the bounce have been tempered somewhat by more positive cup results - the 2-2 draw at Carrow Road followed by a EFL Cup semi-final first-leg win against Liverpool. Yet it was not a surprise to see Puel - who has yet to name an identical starting XI in consecutive matches since arriving at St Mary's - ring the changes again.

With the Premier League trip to Leicester and a return leg against the Reds looming, the Frenchman rested several experienced players and named a youthful starting XI that contained six club academy graduates with an average age of just 21 years and four months. The result was a disjointed performance in front of just 13,517 fans at the 32,500-capacity St Mary's Stadium. The hosts lacked the quality to be incisive against a Norwich side content to sit deep until some late pressure finally told when Republic of Ireland international Long scrambled in Sam McQueen's left-wing cross.

Norwich started life back in the Championship as one of the promotion favourites, backed heavily to finish in the top six and mount a challenge for an instant return to the Premier League. Everything appeared rosy when they lost just two of their opening 12 matches to set the early pace. But their season has disintegrated in the past few months. Canaries boss Alex Neil is taking the brunt of the blame for the malaise, with angry fans venting their frustrations at the Scotsman after the weekend defeat at the Championship's bottom club Rotherham. Neil's starting line-up made it clear the league is his priority, responding with eight changes to his side for the game at St Mary's ahead of Saturday's home game against Wolves.

His side set up with a 5-4-1 formation that left Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty isolated on a rare start. And their lack of ambition - that almost appeared like a willingness to simply nullify Saints and take their chances with penalties - eventually saw them punished as Long's late strike continued their poor form.