Saints on verge of selling Beattie

Southampton 0 Charlton 0

Saints new assistant manager Jim Smith, who joined ex-Portsmouth partner Harry Redknapp at St Mary’s last week, said: “We want to keep James as long as we can. He’s a little bit short of match sharpness but you would have to speak to the chairman about the fact that possibly selling someone would give us the ammunition to bring in the three, four or five quality players we require.

“That might have to be the avenue we unfortunately have to go down,” added Smith.

Newcastle manager Graeme Souness has been linked with a transfer-window move for the Saints striker.

Smith, who conducted the regular after-match press briefing in place of Redknapp, said: “I am here because Harry is frustrated and might say the wrong thing. We’ve come to get the team out of the mire. We knew it was not going to be easy. The players are playing without confidence and it is our job to instil it.

“One point was just about all we deserved today. It was a difficult game for us and we were lucky to get away with it in the first 20 minutes when we could have been two or three down.

“We showed a bit of character eventually and might have had something right at the end but we have two tough away games now (at Liverpool and Manchester City) and it won’t get easier.

“Some of our players are frightened to play, you can see that. We need three, four or five new faces and I’m confident Harry will get those in during the transfer window.”

Midfielder Matt Oakley made his Saints comeback after 15 months out with knee trouble and young defender Martin Cranie had his first league start of the season.

Smith said: “Oakley was a big bonus for us because he went in before we wanted him to. And Martin did well after a difficult start when things could have gone wrong for him.”

Charlton manager Alan Curbishley said: “If we had scored early on when we should have done, we would have won but in the Premiership you have to put your chances away when you are on top.

“At least we got something out of it and that’s another valuable point. Everybody looked comfortable out there for us while Southampton obviously need a win to gain some confidence.

“Is it performances or results that breed confidence? I think it is results.”

Charlton played just one central striker in Shaun Bartlett who hit the bar with an unmarked header but Curbishley pointed out: “We had two out-and-out wingers and I’ve got strikers like Francis Jeffers and Jason Euell on the bench dying to make an impact.

“Dean Kiely had to clear only one chance off the line and, had we taken an opportunity in the first 20 minutes, we would have got hold of the game even more than we did.

“I’ve picked practically the same team for the last four or five games but we’ll have to see how we go over these four games in eight days. We’ve got Blackburn and Everton and Arsenal.”

SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi, Cranie, Lundekvam, Jakobsson, Higginbotham, Telfer, Oakley (Prutton 61), Delap, Beattie (Ormerod 74), Phillips, Crouch (Anders Svensson 45).

CHARLTON: Kiely, Young, El Karkouri, Fortune, Hreidarsson, Rommedahl, Murphy, Holland, Kishishev, Thomas, Bartlett.

Referee: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).