CARLING CUP/Southampton 2 Portsmouth 0: The first meeting between these great south-coast rivals in almost eight years was never expected to produce vintage football and no one was pleasantly surprised.
The greatest drama was saved for the last when James Beattie was brought down in the penalty area in injury time by Arian De Zeeuw.
The Portsmouth defender was sent off and Beattie scored his second goal from the spot.
Most of what little good football there was had come from Southampton and they deserved to win this League Cup fourth-round tie, with a first-half goal from Beattie settling the affair.
Portsmouth, who for so long have toiled in the shadows of their neighbours 20 miles along the coast, never looked capable of lifting themselves for the occasion, although a late run from Steve Stone did cause some panic in the Southampton defence.
The visitors, making their first appearance at this stadium, appeared to be the quicker out of the blocks when, as early as the second minute, Patrik Berger crossed from the left and Teddy Sheringham had his shot blocked.
Berger was at the heart of most of Portsmouth early forays.
Ten minutes later Sheringham was the beneficiary of a neat back-heel from Yakubu but appeared to have his shirt pulled by Jason Dodd.
At the other end Paul Telfer shot tamely wide of the left post while Yakubu, again, was equally profligate when he sent a left-foot shot wide of the left post. This would be the disjointed pattern of the frenetic first half.
At least the first half did not go goalless. Southampton took the lead in the 33rd minute with a typical piece of opportunism from their England centre forward Beattie.
The move started when Boris Zivkovic was robbed by Brett Ormerod who slipped the ball out to Chris Marsden on the left. He crossed and Beattie beat Dejan Stefanovic and the goalkeeper Pavel Srnicek from close range. It was his ninth goal of the season but his first for five games.
Fernandes, left footed but operating on the right of midfield, was a reminder to everyone at Southampton of what they had missed against Aston Villa on Saturday, while Rory Delap's running off the ball was also a matter of urgent concern to Portsmouth. - Guardian Service
SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi, Dodd, Lundekvam, Michael Svensson, Higginbotham, Fernandes, Delap, Telfer, Marsden (Prutton 75), Beattie, Ormerod (Delgado 84). Subs Not Used: Blayney, Anders Svensson, Pahars. Goals: Beattie 33, 90 pen.
PORTSMOUTH: Srnicek, Zivkovic (Foxe 83), De Zeeuw, Stefanovic, Taylor, Stone, Smertin, Faye (Sherwood 75), Berger, Sheringham, Ayegbini. Subs Not Used: Wapenaar, Primus, Schemmel. Sent Off: De Zeeuw (90). Booked: Smertin.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)