Southampton manager, Nigel Adkins, was delighted to see his team stage a late comeback against Fulham to secure a point at the Saint Mary’s on Sunday.
The Saints grabbed an early lead through Jose Fonte in the fourth minute, but the Cottagers got level on terms in fortunate circumstances, as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jos-Hooiveld-c19245 put the ball in his own net in the 69th minute.
Fulham then looked to have spoiled the party for the home team as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kieran-Richardson-c20946 slotted the ball home in the dying stages.
However, Fonte stepped up to spare the Saints blushes. He headed the ball home in stoppage time to help his team bag a point out of the fixture.
After having already suffered 5 defeats in their first 6 games, the draw came as a huge relief for Adkins.
He said that he was disappointed to see his team concede two goals in the match, but was at the same time delighted to have survived a late scare.
“Obviously I am delighted we've come back so late on after going behind, but disappointed to concede the goals we did,” he told the reporters.
“We'd like to think we could've done better with them, but there was great character from the players to score at the very end.”
Southampton, who took 14 shots at goal in total and won 8 corner kicks, overall looked the better side on the day. However, they committed a couple of poor defensive errors in the back, and were often guilty of allowing too much space to the opposition at
the edge of the box.
The Englishman admitted that the Saints need to tighten the screws in the backline.
He termed their overall performance as being satisfactory, but wants them to learn from their mistakes for their coming matches.
“It was too open for our liking. We weren't compact enough in our pressing as a team and we conceded a couple of poor goals. We'd like to think we could've done better with them, but there was great character from the players to score at the very end,” he
added.
Adkins’ men will next play the in-form West Ham United at Upton Park on the 20th of October following the international break.
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