Adkins impressed with Saints spirit

08 October 2012 06:48

Nigel Adkins was pleased by the character Southampton showed to earn a point on Sunday but was disappointed by the way his side almost gifted Fulham victory at St Mary's.

Jose Fonte gave Saints a fourth-minute lead on the south coast but a Jos Hooiveld own-goal and a Kieran Richardson goal put the Cottagers ahead before the Adkins' men rallied late on and Fonte's last-gasp header earned a point.

"Obviously I am delighted we've come back so late on after going behind, but disappointed to concede the goals we did," Adkins said.

"The first half was good. We passed the ball well at certain stages. We scored a good goal from a set play and could have maybe scored some more so the first half was very pleasing.

"The second half Fulham have come out and had a bit more possession of the ball. 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."

While Adkins was left thankful for a point, Fulham manager Martin Jol was left ruing what could have been.

The Dutchman was left annoyed by Fonte's leveller as he claims Maya Yoshida fouled Richardson in the build-up to the goalscorer giving away the set-piece.

"It was 100 per cent a free-kick and I know as I remember I thought 'now we are fine, now we have the ball and the pressure is gone'," Jol said "But he did it as if he didn't see it and two seconds later it was a free-kick for them. That happens and, of course, if it hadn't they wouldn't have scored.

"I wasn't pleased with either goal but I was very pleased with the resilience and character.

"We did better in the second half. We stood up and played like we always did before. We put them under pressure and created more. Our better players had the ball and we played football."

Source: PA