Poortvliet draws comfort

Southampton 2 Ipswich 2

Southampton manager Jan Poortvliet was happy to settle for a point after his lowly side held Ipswich 2-2 at St Mary’s tonight.

Tomas Pekhart rescued the Saints with his first goal in English football to help his team climb from the foot of the Coca-Cola Championship.

Czech youngster Pekhart, on loan from Tottenham, was sent on as a second-half substitute in place of ineffective Stern John.

He responded by blasting home a right-foot shot from 12 yards after a mistake in the Ipswich defence.

Southampton’s hard-earned point was only their fourth in six matches this season and left Poortvliet satisfied with a small confidence boost.

“I have to be happy that we gained a point,” he said.

“I cannot understand it in many ways because we started so well, but as soon as Ipswich equalised we lost our belief and confidence.

At one stage I thought the spirit had gone and we needed a lift. That is why I made three substitutions early in the second half.

“Pekhart worked hard for his goal and I am happy for him. His goal gave us some confidence and we were able to go on and get a draw, which we have needed.

“But only three days ago we had a tough game at Queens Park Rangers and had to play for an hour with only 10 men. Maybe the damage was done there because we could not keep our confidence.”

Ipswich manager Jim Magilton was disappointed with the outcome.

The former Southampton player said: “We made a sluggish start and allowed Southampton too much freedom but we were much better in the second half and we should have gone on and won but we threw the game away.

“There was a catalogue of errors for Southampton’s second goal and some lackadaisical defending.

“But credit to Southampton, they showed great courage and character to come back at us.”

Andrew Surman put Southampton ahead in the 12th minute with a low right-foot shot from the edge of the area after cutting in from the left.

But Ipswich gradually got on top and they equalised in the 20th minute when Owen Garvan snapped up a rebound.

Southampton’s former Ipswich goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, made a serious of outstanding saves to keep his team in contention.

But there was nothing he could do about Ipswich’s second goal in the 49th minute.

Loan signing Moritz Volz made the goal with a burst down the right and a deep centre to the far post where Alan Quinn climbed high to head in from two yards.

Davis denied Ipswich substitute Kevin Lisbie and Pablo Counago before Pekhart scored his leveller.