Sherwood relief as Villa stay up despite Saints mauling

LONDON (Reuters) - Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood was a relieved man after a roller-coaster day that began with a 6-1 drubbing at Southampton ended with his club being guaranteed Premier League survival. The mauling put Villa back in the relegation frame but Hull City's 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur ensured they will stay up and can look forward with added confidence to the FA Cup final against Arsenal in two weeks' time. "The remit when I arrived was to try to keep the football club in the division and I'm delighted we have managed to achieve that with a game to spare," Sherwood told the club website. Sherwood took over from Paul Lambert in February and has galvanized Villa with his passionate and positive coaching style. "Our form over that period has been good," he said. "We've picked up a considerable amount of points within a short period of time which has been good enough to keep us in the Premier League. "As I've said on many occasions we won't be in this position again and we can now look forward to our last home game of the season against Burnley and the FA Cup final in the knowledge we are safe." Sherwood had earlier admitted that the performance at Southampton was unacceptable as a shell-shocked Villa fell 5-1 down by halftime. "The first 45 minutes of football was not good enough," he said. "Southampton punished every mistake we made and we made quite a few. "Everyone at the club has to take responsibility and we do. We've done brilliant over the past couple of months, that's why we can't get too carried away. "It's a defeat and a heavy defeat. It's happened, we need to wipe our mouths and get on with it," added Sherwood. (Reporting by Ed Osmond, editing by Tony Jimenez)