Saints hit by Beattie injury

Southampton striker Kevin Phillips bemoaned the loss of fellow forward James Beattie with a suspected broken toe in the 1-1 draw against Manchester City at St Mary’s.

Phillips recognised Saints’ plight when he told Sky Premiership Plus: “It’s sod’s law. James gets a broken toe – things don’t go for you when you are scrapping away.

“We need points to climb the table but we are down there. We have a break now [for World Cup qualifiers] but we have to go away and work hard.

“A lot was riding on today for both teams. We needed to win and so did they.”

City keeper David James claimed he was “frustrated” that the team did put not away their chances.

“We had the chances and they had a few. It was similar to the Palace match where again we did not finish them off.

“We created chances from set-play and we were good in defence and they were good at blocking on their line but we have to put them away.”

He added: “It was frustrating. In our position in the league we need more than a point.”