Adkins rues missed opportunity

Nigel Adkins was pleased by the character Southampton showed to earn a 2-2 draw but was disappointed to have nearly lost to Fulham.

Jose Fonte gave Saints a fourth-minute lead on the south coast 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 passed the ball well at certain stages. 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."