Ten-man Southampton secured their first South Coast derby win in the league in over two decades with a 1-0 home victory over Portsmouth.

Saints beat their fierce local rivals 2-1 in the Premier League on November 13 2004, with Kevin Phillips scoring the winner.

And they finally did it again, thanks to James Bree’s neat first-half finish, despite playing the entire second half with 10 men following Cameron Bragg’s red card.

Portsmouth looked the more industrious team at the start of only the 35th league meeting in history between these sides – but it was Southampton who broke the deadlock.

Finn Azaz’s magnificent ball found Bree, who had easily slipped from the grasp of Jayden Meghoma. He took one sharp touch to control it and another to guide it beyond Nico Schmid, before celebrating in the direction of the Pompey fans.

Few chances of note followed before the break, but the hosts suffered a huge blow moments before the whistle. Boyhood Saints fan Bragg picked up a second booking for a needless pull on Ebou Adams and walked.

John Mousinho brought on Adrian Segecic at the break to try and help find the equaliser, then made a triple change just after the hour – but he was unable to refresh the visitors’ attack, which increasingly lacked urgency.

That was illustrated in the numbers: 10 second-half shots, zero on target, 0.51 xG.

A run of four straight draws in this fixture comes to an end – capping a positive week for Southampton, following the news Tonda Eckert was given only a six-week suspended ban by the FA for the ‘Spygate’ saga.

Eckert: Derby win means everything – but we had to dig deep after red

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert speaking on Sky Sports:

“It means everything. We had to dig deep, probably a lot deeper than we thought before the game and credit to the boys because they deserved that.”

On the red card: “You know how much it means to him [Bragg].

“At the end, I said to him he gave us a game we would not have had any other way, so we’ll probably look back at the end of the season and say this is the game that gave us a big push and he was a part of that. In a different way than he wanted, but it happens. It will be a learning for him.

“I think it did change the game. Not on the scoreline, but the game changes then and you need to find different qualities. We knew then we had to dig deep.”

Mousinho bemoans Pompey’s inability to take advantage of extra man

Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho speaking on Sky Sports:

“When you come away from games and you’re well beaten, it’s easier to take in some ways. Today, it was a different game after the red card, but for the amount of pressure we had in the second half, the amount of opportunities we had, to not put the ball in the back of the net… we’re devastated.

“There’s very few times you come in as a head coach or manager after the game and not be frustrated by the way you’ve conceded goals. We lost a challenge in the middle of the park, had half-decent movement in behind, but it’s something we highlighted. We have to be much better and we actually got away with one after the first or second minute.

“Against a really good side, if you get torn apart – and they had some spells in the first half where they looked good, but didn’t really threaten us – you hold your hands up and take it. But it’s one we’ll look back on.

“For the territory and the opportunities we created, it was a good performance against 10 men – we just didn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”

What the result means and next fixtures…