Mixed emotions for Adkins after late drama

Southampton 2 Fulham 2

Jose Fonte gave Saints a fourth-minute lead but, having failed to make the most out of their first-half dominance, the Cottagers levelled things up thanks to Jos Hooiveld’s second-half own goal.

The Dutch defender was again involved two minutes from time when substitute Kieran Richardson’s close-range effort took a deflection off him on its way in, seemingly ensuring an away win for the west Londoners.

However, Saints rallied late on and Fonte’s last-gasp header earned a point that Adkins knows could have easily been three.

“Obviously I am delighted we’ve come back so late on after going behind, but disappointed to concede the goals we did,” Adkins said.

“The first half was good. We scored a good goal from a set play and could have maybe scored some more so the first half was very pleasing. The second half Fulham have come out and had a bit more possession of the ball. It was too open for our liking.

“We weren’t compact enough in our pressing as a team and we conceded a couple of poor goals.

“We’d like to think we could’ve done better with them, but there was great character from the players to score at the very end.’’

While Adkins was left thankful for a point, Fulham manager Martin Jol was left ruing what could have been.

The Dutchman was left annoyed by Fonte’s leveller as he claims Maya Yoshida fouled Kieran Richardson in the build-up to the goalscorer giving away the set-piece.

“It was 100% a free-kick and I know as I remember I thought ‘now we are fine, now we have the ball and the pressure is gone’,” Jol said.

“But he did it as if he didn’t see it and two seconds later it was a free-kick for them. That happens and, of course, if it hadn’t they wouldn’t have scored.

“I wasn’t pleased with either goal but I was very pleased with the resilience and character.’’

SOUTHAMPTON: Gazzaniga, Richardson (Hooiveld 8), Yoshida, Fonte, Fox, Puncheon (Chaplow 61), Schneiderlin, Steven Davis, Lallana, Rodriguez, Lambert (Do Prado 67).

FULHAM: Schwarzer, Riether, Hughes, Hangeland, Riise, Kacaniklic (Richardson 66), Ruiz, Baird, Sidwell (Karagounis 72), Duff, Rodallega.

Ref: Mark Clattenburg.