Southampton beat Portsmouth 1-0 at St Mary's on Sunday, and they did most of it with ten men. James Bree scored the only goal in the first half, Cameron Bragg was sent off before the interval, and the Saints spent the second half sitting deep and refusing to let their neighbours in. It was their first league win over Portsmouth in almost 22 years.
Bree Finds the Corner
The goal came on 20 minutes and it came from a pass. Finn Azaz, who seems to have a habit of producing something on south coast derby days, played an in-swinging ball into the box for Bree, who had slipped away to the far post. Bree took one touch with his right foot, then bent the finish into the bottom corner with the instep of his left, beating Nicolas Schmid. He ran off to celebrate in front of the travelling Portsmouth fans, and he was in no hurry to leave them alone.
Portsmouth had started well enough. Ryan Kavuma-McQueen darted into the box on the right early on and sent a hard shot across the face of goal. Then Bree struck, and the match changed shape.
Bragg Sent Off, Saints Dig In
Bragg was shown a second yellow card on 44 minutes for pulling down Ebou Adams. The academy graduate came off distraught and was consoled by Leo Scienza and head coach Tonda Eckert on the touchline. From there the game turned into a question of whether Southampton could survive for a full 45 minutes plus stoppage.
They did it better than anyone expected. Early in the second half Scienza was played through and Schmid made a fine save to keep it at 1-0, and Southampton's players wanted a penalty for handball from the resulting corner, which referee Adam Herczeg waved away. Azaz was booked near the hour for a heavy challenge on Adams, which set off a scuffle and plenty of complaints from Portsmouth that it should have been worse. Marko Milovanovic came closest to an equaliser late on, but his effort ended up in the side netting.
John Mousinho's side had most of the ball after the break, mainly through Abu Kamara and Tyrese Shade down the flanks. The trouble was the final ball. Crosses were cut out, shots from the edge of the area were blocked, and a compact Southampton defence kept closing the door.
Eckert's Tweak and the Table
This was Eckert's first game since the FA handed him a suspended six-week ban and a £28,000 fine over his part in the Spygate affair, and the club has stood by him throughout. He changed the shape too, moving from the usual 4-2-3-1 to something closer to a 4-1-4-1 with Bree pushing up on the right, which made the goal look like a plan rather than an accident. Eckert called it the biggest game of the season so far and said there was a lot more to come. Norwich away on Wednesday is the next test.
Azaz now has six assists in the Championship this season and nine goal contributions from Southampton's first nine league matches. The Saints, who began the campaign on minus four points, climb to 11th. Portsmouth stay 19th after their first defeat in four games, a single point above the relegation zone after eight matches. Mousinho said his team were absolutely gutted, and that they should at least have put the ball in the net once. Against ten men, it is hard to disagree.
Match facts: Southampton 1-0 Portsmouth (half-time 1-0), Championship, St Mary's Stadium, Sunday 11 October 2026. Attendance 30,735. Goal: Bree 20' (assist Azaz). Sent off: Bragg (Southampton), second yellow card, 44'. Southampton head coach: Tonda Eckert. Portsmouth head coach: John Mousinho. Source reporting: BBC Sport.
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