Joy for Eckert as 10-man Southampton edge out Portsmouth in feisty derby

At the full-time whistle in the south coast derby, Tonda Eckert thrust his arms out wide and roared into the sky with the rest of the Southampton supporters. It had been a tense 90 minutes after a tense few months, but finally the young German coach could let it all out. At the end of a week where he found out that he will face no immediate ban for his part in the Spygate scandal that rocked the Championship last season, he helped deliver Southampton’s first home win over Portsmouth for 22 years.

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Southampton played more than half of a fiercely contested game with 10 men after Cameron Bragg was sent off for a second yellow card on 44 minutes and Eckert was keen to divert credit elsewhere at full time. “I think that one today belongs to the players,” he said. “If you go a man down there’s not so much you can do as a manager outside of trying to give a structure that helps. It’s the players that dig out games like this.”

There was widespread surprise at the leniency of the punishment that allowed Eckert to take his seat in the dugout for the derby. After Southampton admitted to spying on three opponents last season, the 33-year-old was handed a six-week ban, suspended until the end of the 2027-28 campaign, and a £28,000 fine for misconduct.

An FA independent disciplinary commission noted Eckert’s “genuine contrition” at what had happened. At Southampton, there is a sense that their expulsion from the playoffs in May and subsequent four-point deduction was punishment enough, and Eckert is keen to move on from a period of uncertainty that he admitted this week had changed his life.

This win was evidence of a club sticking together. James Bree was the author of the winning goal, turning the ball home after 20 minutes, but the pattern of the game shifted with Bragg’s dismissal. Southampton, united and resolute, held on to move into the top half – they would be third without the points deduction – with Eckert now able to contemplate another promotion push.

Portsmouth were as usual given a pre-match police escort to St Mary’s and their full-back Jayden Meghoma, who made his professional debut for Southampton as a 17-year-old, was a magnet for Saints ire. He was a threat down the left, firing wide at the near post in a promising opening, but he lost Bree for the goal. Finn Azaz was given too much space in midfield and clipped a ball in behind a static Meghoma for Bree, forward from right-back, to guide a left-footed finish into the far corner.

Ebou Adams, who scored Portsmouth’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw in this fixture in January, was a central figure early on. He twice picked Bragg’s pocket in the Southampton half and drew yellow cards on both occasions. Bragg was consoled by his teammates after seeing red for an instinctive tug of Adams’s shirt after being caught on the ball.

The decision to start Bragg in a holding midfield role had backfired. “It will be a learning [curve] for him, but I asked him to be brave,” Eckert said. “I asked him to get on the ball and he does just that. I’ll take that on me, then.”

Colby Bishop, whose header was well saved by Daniel Peretz, and Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, who drilled a shot just wide, went close to equalising before Eckert could try to plug the gaps at half-time.

The game was just as frantic after the break. Azaz was perhaps lucky not to be sent off for a wild lunge on Adams. When Bree was treated for a battle scar around his eye, Eckert held council with his remaining midfielders James Ward-Prowse and Flynn Downes as Pompey continued to knock on the door. The substitute Adrian Segecic was drifting into spaces and had fizzed a couple of low efforts wide in the minutes before, while the right-back Zak Swanson saw his cut-back cleared by Jack Stephens from under the Southampton crossbar.

“It was a different game after the red card,” said the Portsmouth head coach, John Mousinho. “But for the amount of pressure that we had in the second half, the amount of opportunities we had, to not put the ball in the back of the net – we’re devastated.”

While Eckert gradually cut back his side’s attacking presence, Mousinho emptied his bench in an attempt to find a way through a Southampton defence marshalled by Stephens and Keven Schlotterbeck, who laid their bodies on the line more than once in front of Peretz. Their clean sheet was a priceless end to a week where their manager was given something of a clean slate.