Eckert encouraged by clean sheet
Tonda Eckert was pleased to see his Southampton side start the new year with a clean sheet against Millwall at St Mary’s.
A tight game ended goalless, thanks in part to a spectacular Gavin Bazunu save 12 minutes from time, before Finn Azaz and Taylor Harwood-Bellis both threatened to win the game for Saints in stoppage time.
For Eckert, who made five changes to his starting line-up, a clean sheet has been a primary target for several games, and the head coach was encouraged by the way his team stood up to the Lions’ physicality.
“I think there are many positives to take away from the game today,” he reflected.
“We’ve been working on a clean sheet for quite some time, and I think we were a lot more solid on the set-pieces today, and we had some boys who haven’t played in a little bit of time and they were all very strong and positive.
“On the other hand, if you come to the end of the game and you have two big chances, then obviously you play for three points, but we just didn’t manage to bring that over the line.”
On the five changes, which included a first Saints start for Kuryu Matsuki, a first in two months for Elias Jelert and a first St Mary’s start for Cameron Bragg, Eckert admitted Saints’ packed festive schedule was the decisive factor.
“If you play so many games in such a short spell, especially for us with many games away from home, we just need to make sure we have a certain freshness on the pitch, and I was very happy with the boys that started the game,” he explained.
“We knew that we had some big quality coming off the bench today, and we needed that.
“We knew that the game was probably going to be even for some time because it’s a strong team, very well organised, very good defensively, and it was for us to just defend the balls that came into the box and I think we’ve done this very well.
“We knew that we needed an impact from the bench, and we had that. There was just a slight bit missing towards the end to make the three points.”
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