'I'm absolutely buzzing': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho's delight after south-coast stalemate with Southampton

John Mousinho hailed Fratton Park’s superb south-coast derby atmosphere and admitted: I’m absolutely buzzing we didn’t lose.

Pompey and Southampton shared an eventful 1-1 draw, albeit after Ebou Adams capped his home debut with an equaliser 13 minutes from time.

The Blues actually finished the far stronger of the two sides, with their effort and endeavour reflected by the appreciative reception by those home fans among the 20,290 attendance after the final whistle.

Overall, Mousinho felt the draw was a ‘fair result’, with the fierce rivals also drawing earlier in the season at St Mary’s in September, with the fixture goalless on that occasion.

And the Blues head coach was also delighted for the Fratton faithful not to have allowed Tona Eckert’s men to claim the bragging rights.

Mousinho told The News: ‘The atmosphere was amazing, brilliant to be part of, from the minute you stepped into the ground it was different. We prepared differently because of the circumstances around Fratton and Portsmouth.

‘I came out in the warm-up and everyone was at it, you could tell it was going to be one of those days with the rain as well. A brilliant atmosphere and I’m absolutely buzzing we didn’t lose the game.

‘Obviously I would have wanted to win it, just for the fans really because it would have been a horrible time if we’d have lost it.

‘It was a really good game of football, played like a proper derby, intense, aggressive, both sides pressed really well - and overall it was a fair result.

‘We were the much better side after the goal and it looked like we maybe could nick something, but overall it was a fair draw.

‘I’m not coming away off the back of the last 15-20 minutes thinking we missed some-guilt edged chances there.

‘We did miss some good opportunities to create chances, Keshi to slide Segs in, Marlon’s shot from the edge of the box, a couple of set-pieces, but, overall on the balance of the game, it was a fair result.’

With Regan Poole missing through a groin problem, although still named on the bench, it was very much a makeshift centre-half pair in Zak Swanson and Ibane Bowat.

Considering the Blues were also without 11 players, including Conor Shaughnessy, Josh Murphy and Callum Lang, how his team performed against big-spending Southampton also pleased Mousinho.

He added: ‘We started really well and the first half is an interesting one to dissect.

‘I thought we were the better side (in that period), but Southampton had two chances. We had a lot of pressure and plenty of shots without properly testing the goalkeeper.

‘Maybe coming out in the second half we weren’t quite as structured as we'd been, particularly on the press, and Southampton had a couple of good opportunities. We gave the ball away a couple of times and broke, which is something we need to be better at.

‘Once we settled back into the game, I thought we were pretty good - and it was a fair result.’