A little bit of Johnny Rebello and a lot of Sammy Swan were too much for Southampton Rangers last night.

With Rebello pulling the strings on a revamped defence and Swan pulling the trigger on three goals, Vasco moved into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a thorough victory in this third round match at PHC Stadium.

Even at this late stage of the season, Rebello, the veteran Vasco coach, isn't beyond tinkering with his line-up. Last night he unveiled a four-back two-forward formation that threw a blanket over the Rangers high octane attack.

"We had guys staying home'', said Rebello. That hasn't been the case for much of the season, he added.

With his team struggling in attack, he said his three backs felt obligated to join the attack -- and had left too many holes behind them.

But last night Rangers were forced to the perimeter and when they were fortunate enough to get a clear shot, sure-handed 'keeper Timmy Figureido was there.

At the other end, Swan's hat-trick was more than enough to carry Vasco through.

Swan opened the scoring in the 25th minute when he took an Irving Burgess cross and uncoiled a 20-yard blast just as he was being sandwiched by two defenders.

He added two more goals in the second half with Burgess supplying the other.

Swan made it 2-0 in the 57th minute from the penalty spot after referee Cal Simons caught Rangers' defender Pernell Brangman grabbing onto Burgess' jersey.

Burgess, who hit the post twice in the first half, finally got his goal after a lovely three-way passing move that culminated with him running onto Swan's flick and pumping a shot into the corner.

Two minutes later in the 84th minute Swan completed his treble, sliding a sharp angled shot past back-up goalkeeper Bernie Woods, with the ball sneaking into the far corner just before Burgess arrived to make sure.

Rangers' Janeiro Tucker had made things interesting in the 75th minute on a bizarre penalty kick. Flattened as he ran into the area, Tucker was awarded the penalty but had his shot to the bottom right corner saved by Figureido.

However, the ball ricocheted off the crossbar and back to Tucker who alertly booted in the rebound.

Vasco were first to every ball and Rangers were unable to get out of second gear.

Rebello promised a new formation for Saturday's league match against Devonshire Colts. "We've been playing so much football that we haven't had many quality training sessions to work on things,'' he said.

PHC and Devonshire Colts meet in an FA Cup third round clash at BAA Field at 9.00 tonight, resuming their rivalry after a tough Dudley Eve two-leg final over the Christmas holidays.

PHC won that match-up and will be slight favourites going into this evening's fixture.

The preceding women's FA Cup match at 7.00 sees Robin Hood taking on PHC Teasers.