Southampton and Portsmouth played out a competitive goalless draw in the Championship in what was the first league meeting between the south coast rivals for 13 years.
Pompey were the better side in the first half and hit the bar from Andre Dozzell’s strike.
The visitors were threatening in attack and created further chances through the returning Conor Chaplin as well as Josh Murphy and Adrian Segecic.
But Saints were a much improved side in the second period, dominating the ball and forcing their rivals deeper into their own half.
At the final whistle Southampton fans booed while the travelling Portsmouth fans broke into cheers as the points were shared.
The result was just the second scoreless draw between the two sides – the previous one came in 1924.
Both sets of fans walked out to a deafening wall of noise at St Mary’s Stadium for the much-anticipated fixture.
But it was Portsmouth who enjoyed the better of the first half, registering seven attempts at goal compared to Southampton’s three.
And they went closest just before the 10-minute mark when Dozzell struck the crossbar with a curling right-footed effort that had Saints keeper Gavin Bazunu beaten.
Then, just before the end of the half, Portsmouth went close again when Murphy’s whipped ball in from the left found its way to Colby Bishop in the box, but his volleyed effort flew wide.
Saints looked a much more dangerous team after the break and Cameron Archer had a great chance following an error from Regan Poole.
However, the forward’s touch was too heavy as he took it around substitute keeper Ben Killip and the angle too tight for him to put it into the net.
Mousinho ‘frustrated’ by Ogilvie and Schmid collision
One moment that had a big impact on the away side was when Pompey duo Nico Schmid and Connor Ogilvie, and Saints winger Tom Fellows were involved in a collision.
A ball was played over the top which Ogilvie went to clear and keeper Schmid ran out to also try to boot it away. Fellows got caught up in the group and appeared to push Ogilvie into his team-mate.
The Pompey pair were eventually forced off and after the game boss John Mousinho was not happy about the incident.
“Both of them are not great,” he told BBC Radio Solent.
“It’s probably the thing I’m most frustrated about in the game. Connor gets pushed in the back and it’s extremely dangerous.
“For some reason the referee and his unit decide to do nothing about it and it’s an awful challenge that wasn’t dealt with.”
Mousinho said that the injuries sustained were to Schmid’s hand and Ogilvie’s neck.
Still not happy with Portsmouth’s approach
Southampton came out for the second half a much improved side after struggling to get going in the first period.
Chances fell to Ryan Manning, Fellows and Cameron Archer but none of them could find the target with their efforts.
Saints boss Will Still said he was frustrated at how his side had started the game.
“It was very frustrating,” Still told BBC Radio Solent. “The first half was not good enough.
“I think we have literally wasted 45 minutes of what we were doing by taking things too literally and too stereotypically.
“Away from that it was a bit of a stop-start game. There were a lot of free-kicks, throw-ins, goal kicks and it just sort of flattened things to be honest.
“But maybe that was what they wanted, they probably came here for that and got what they wanted so fair play to them for that.
“I just want to win games of football. I was more frustrated with the scenario of the game. It was just very stop-start, long balls, second balls, fouls. It just did not get into the flow of what it could have been, what it should have been, so we have to fix that.”
[BBC]