A packed St Mary's crowd got it's money's worth on Saturday, both during the game and in the moments after the final whistle, but ultimately it was the Sky Blues who were more satisfied with the draw.

Tonda Eckert again only made minimal changes to his starting XI, with Joshua Quarshie coming in for Jack Stephens and Welington in for Ryan Fraser on the right, with Tom Fellows seemingly not ready for a place in the starting line up and having to be content for a place on the bench.

The first half was a hard fought contest with both sides having their chances and Gavin Bazunu having to be at his best to make sure that the scores were level and Saints also having their chances.

It seemed to be heading for a goal less first half when on the stroke of half time the visitors took the lead, this was not Saints greatest defensive moment we had plenty of defenders in the box, twice as many bodies as Coventry players, but none thought to actually mark Mason-Clark who was all on his own to pick his spot with a header from about 8 yards out.

Poor defending and again it highlighted the lack of leadership and organisation in the Saints defence, there were at least 3 of our players just stood watching, some good first half work was wiped out in one moment of disarray.

If you missed that goal and many did due to heading for the concourses, then if you were also late back to your seat, you would have missed the games next crucial moment, Dasilva being sent off for an appalling tackle on Welington.

In real time it looked harsh on the player, but TV replays showed the ref had got it spot on and those who claimed later that Frank Lampard was incensed with this and it was the cause of his strange behaviour after the final whistle would note that he would have seen these replays as Welington was laid on the ground being treated, he would have known it was well deserved.

This turned the tide of the game in Saints favour, but did it completely help them, Coventry had a lead to defend and were determined to keep it, they had two solid defensive lines and just the one man up front who himself spent most of his time in midfield.

It didn't take to long for Saints to be back on terms, Nathan Wood getting in what was the perfect header to even things up and with 34 minutes left on the clock, you fancied Saints chances.

Just after the hour mark on came Tom Fellows, but the problem for him and indeed all of our players was the dogged defending from the visitors, they still had something to defend and they were determined to get at least a point.

Time after time the Saints waves surged forward, but every time they repelled the attacks cleared the ball and we started again, their only method of attack was the long ball to the lone striker and that was easily dealt with.

When we did get an effort on target the Coventry keeper was up for it and made several decent stops.

So the game finished all square and Coventry celebrated as if they had won promotion on this day, apparently according to Adam Blackmore, so did their media in the press box, they had come not to lose and had achieved that.

So for Saints fans it was a disappointing game in that we did not win it, but it should be remembered that Coventry are the best side in this division, they are 11 points clear of 3rd place, if they fail to get promoted in the automatic spots it will have been a spectacular collapse.

But if we look at this from a positive perspective, we matched a side that have lost just twice this season, Ok they were down to 10 men in the second half, but we had been their equal in the first half apart from that one lapse.

You could say that when they dropped down to 10 men, their tactics did not help us, the likes of Leo Scienza and then Tom Fellows when he came on, had little room to make their runs and get in behind their defence and when they did get balls into the box, they outnumbered us with so many players still behind the ball.

We should take the positives from this, this was two good sides going head to toe, to be fair we would probably have been happy with a point before the game, but as they went down to 10 men, many will feel we should have won it.

A fair point, but not a completely valid one, if you go down to 10 and adapt your tactics in the way that Coventry did, then they had as good a better chance of not conceding a second goal as they would have had with XI players on the pitch.

The only complaint I had was the "Dark Arts" employed by the Sky Blues, I lost could of the number of times I could see a Southampton shirt being pulled both inside and out of the box and if I could spot that from 50 yards away, why were the ref and linesman not doing so.

It was not just shirt pulling, the red card tackle was not necessary, Welington was near the touchline on the half way line, Coventry were pumped up for this game and were prepared to use any tactic to win it.

Frank Lampard managed the game after that red card to get a draw and not to sneak a win and I suspect not one Coventry supporter will criticise him for that.

I would imagine most Saints supporters will not have seen the bizarre actions from the former Chelsea player after the final whistle and I will tackle that in a separate article, but it was a shock to see Frank Lampard behave like that, Taylor Harwood-Bellis seemed to have calmed him down, but then it all went off again.

I can't see what set him off, yes the Northam End gave him a little bit of stick for being a Sh*te Steven Gerrard, but lets be fair that is hardly vitriolic abuse, I am sure Lampard had heard far worse in over 600 games for West Ham, Chelsea & Manchester City, as I said it couldn't have been the sending off, he would have seen the replays within minutes.

I think it was the sheer adrenalin, this was a big test for his side and they came through it and the final whistle just saw all those emotions explode.

It was not nice to watch, it could have sparked some far worse scenes off the pitch than it did on, but this is football it is about passion.

So we march on, we now need to get back to winning ways and Oxford United are next up on Boxing Day.

All Photos Via Reuters

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