Eckert: We deserved more
Tonda Eckert felt his Southampton side were worthy of victory with the way they pushed table-topping Coventry to their limits at a raucous St Mary’s.
The Sky Blues took a timely lead just before half time through Ephron Mason-Clark’s header, but were reduced to 10 men soon after the interval when Jay Dasilva was dismissed for a reckless challenge on Welington.
Saints quickly took advantage, levelling the scores through Nathan Wood’s first Saints goal, and pushed hard for a winner, but the visitors hung on, gratefully, for a share of the spoils as the home crowd roared Eckert’s side forward.
“Obviously two very different halves,” the head coach reflected. “I think the first half was quite even – there were two chances for us to go up that we didn’t manage to convert, and then if you concede in the last situation before you go into half time it is never easy.
“I think the boys dealt with it quite well, and then we came out strong second half and the early red card changes the rhythm of the game.
“Energy wise it was a very good second half, but it’s also true that in the end we play to win games – every single one – and in the end we just came away with one point.
“I think they were hanging on in the second half, which is also normal in the way the game unfolded. We had many moments when we got into dangerous spaces, dangerous situations, but in the end there was just a little bit missing to take away three points.
“I think it is not so easy when you don’t manage to finish your attacks to control the long balls that they put out, but I think our last line has done an excellent job in controlling that, just to give us momentum to be able to attack again, and again. I think we deserved to come away with three points today.”
Eckert twice waved Gavin Bazunu forward for stoppage-time corners, underlining Saints’ intentions to go for the jugular.
Bazunu caused havoc in the box against Real Madrid Under-21s under Eckert’s management in October – his header was saved and forced home on the rebound by Abdul Okunola to rescue a point in the Premier League International Cup.
“We play for three points – that’s so clear,” the boss added. “That has been the case for every single game. He (Bazunu) has been quite dangerous on offensive corners – he [nearly] scored one here two months ago, so we pushed and we tried to find every possibility to get one in the net.
“We saw that after Millwall it doesn’t always go well, but it’s a mindset – if you want to play for promotion this year, we need to play for three points. That you need to do until the very last minute of the game, and I think it was very clear that we tried to do everything to win the game.”
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