Southampton 0 – 0 Portsmouth

The first south coast derby between Southampton and Portsmouth in the league for 13 years ended in an anticlimactic 0-0 draw at St Mary’s.

The anticipation for the game had been high since the fixtures were released in June. The noise was deafening as the players walked out; the fireworks, pyrotechnics and enormous tifo, emblazoned with the face of Saints legend James Beattie, added to an already electric atmosphere.

Pompey had the first chance, when Andre Dozzell reacted first to a poor clearance, and curled a first-time effort off the crossbar, with Gavin Bazunu beaten.

That was the highlight of a first half that, otherwise, flattered to deceive. The first shot on target did not come until the sixth minute of added time, when Saints’ Cameron Archer connected with Tom Fellows’ deflected cross.

That was easily collected by substitute goalkeeper Ben Killip, who had replaced Nico Schmid after 26 minutes. He was injured after a collision with Connor Ogilvie, who was withdrawn at half-time.

There was a big let-off for the visitors early in the second half when Cameron Archer gambled on a backwards header, drew Killip from his line, raced beyond him and squared, but there were only blue shirts waiting to clear.

The only other shot on target of the game came 77 minutes in, when Terry Devlin, just moments after his introduction, struck a low drive straight at Bazunu. A goalless draw was an inevitability after that.

Still: We need to flip mental baggage on its head

Southampton’s Will Still speaking to Sky Sports:

“It’s frustrating. The first half probably wasn’t good enough. We looked like a new team that’s trying to build itself, that’s trying to look for its references, find the right distances.

“We corrected it in the second half and put in a better performance, but in the end, when you waste time in the first half like we did, we probably didn’t deserve to get much more out of the game.

“Frustrating is the main word. They came here with a plan and got what they wanted.

“We’re a new team; there was a big player turnover. I’m not looking for excuses. It takes a bit of time to find the passing lines, to find the angles that are right and the distances that can make us look forward and play forward.

“I thought we were getting nearer to that in the second half, but we’re not quite there yet.

“There’s also a mental baggage that we need to flip on its head and move forward with. But I knew what I was walking into and we’re in the process.”

Mousinho on ‘really poor’ challenge that injured Schmid, Ogilvie

Portsmouth’s John Mousinho speaking to Sky Sports:

“We’re satisfied with the point. Certainly at half-time we felt we were much the better team, and we came out in the second half, it was a different game, but we didn’t concede too many chances and really could have caught them on the break.

“When the dust settles, we’ll be satisfied with the point, but certainly when we’re on top in the first half, we could have been slightly more clinical and a bit better in the final third.

“I’m very proud of the performance. Physically, the lads were absolutely excellent.”

On losing Schmid and Ogilvie to injury: “A real blow, but I thought it was a really, really poor challenge. It doesn’t look like a huge amount, but everybody in the stadium can see that the goalkeeper’s coming out, particularly the Southampton player [Tom Fellows].

“He decides to push Connor Ogilvie into the goalkeeper, and I’ve got two players that are injured, one’s gone to hospital. A really, really poor challenge and poorly dealt with. We’ve got a significant neck injury for Connor and a possible fracture for Nico.

“You can probably see I was clearly upset by that, and not the consequence of it, because I didn’t know at the time. I was very upset at the time about the challenge.”