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Emphasises why James Bree made history today in a way that few of those regulatory occurring games does. Despite Boro’s attempts to begin a rivalry today just underlines why that’s so unlikely. You can’t replicate it.

But does emphasise what makes it so special, so few league meetings in such a long time. Imagine trying to get hyped for the North London or Merseyside derby where you play each other every season and you've got a dozen wins in the last 20 years.

Hasn’t been any different all my life frequency wise for the fixture taking place. I’m 50 next year, first derby 83/84 but far too young for my dad to take me to that. Then the 2-2 in 87, infamous 0-2 in 88. Then nothing until Jan 1996 and a one-sided 3-0. Then League Cup 2-0 with the Bates ‘silence’, 3-0 Marian goal and 1-0 loss down there. 2-1 and 4-1 04/05. FA Cup 5th round 2010, two draws 2011/12, League Cup where we walloped them 0-4 2019, two draws last season and today. That’s it since 1976/7 I think?

Shows you how dense the flag shaggers are if they picked today. Clearly not from Southampton or surrounding area then. Surprised the skates not in the bubble didn’t join in, more their sort of thing than ours. Sure Thommo would’ve if he wasn’t banged up. And his beloved Pompey lost the derby to us today for the first time to us in the league for 22 years. Hey ho 😂😂😂😂

Interesting to hear Tonda admit on Solent after that he relied a lot more on emotions today over tactics.

Yeah 1st win in 5 leagues games doesnt sound as dramatic.

Mad really. That's why the fixture means so much, when a win is so rare.

Yeah, two draws in 2011/12 and two more last season.

Seems so, that’s what BBC are saying. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/ckr5ym1lv6qmt Southampton battled to beat Portsmouth in the Championship and win their first league match against the Blues in nearly 22 years. Google AI says: Southampton defeated Portsmouth 1–0 in the EFL Championship at St Mary's Stadium on October 11, 2026, marking Southampton's first league win over Portsmouth in 22 years and the first league victory for either side in the fixture in 21 years.

That was my question before kick-off. Whilst things turned out well in the end, it did smack of over-thinking on Tonda's part to me.

No problem with the two yellows for Bragg, bless him, he knows what he did and will learn from it, but many complaints about the appalling inconsistency of the ref who failed to give a number of yellows to opposition players. And Pompey were hilariously dreadful. Day topped off by finally saying hello to our spiritual leader Steve as we left the Pompey fans to fight a fence and some rather incontinent horses. Farmer Grant allows us all to use his land to plant our thoughts, I salute him.

Apparently there was a patriots march this afternoon in Soton. Surprised as I'd have thought most locals would be too busy watching the game.

..and if he hadn’t pulled him back, it could’ve been 1-1. So we have Cameron Bragg to thank for the win. Cheers Cam 👍🏼

Is that the first win for either side in a league meeting since 2005?

-4 who gives a fuck!

Second was an obvious booking. A petulant shirt tug.

Christ he's only just retired? Those goals against Pompey were 14 years ago!

Fortunately P were fairly toothless , and our final thin red and white line held out . I would have liked to see a few more goal bound chances from us but happy with the win after so many years.

It was, but I did think at around 85 that Azaz could do with coming off for Mubama, he was dead on his feet and Pompey were pushing so high in every position that just pumping the ball down the line for Mubama to chase would have been an excellent out option. But, hard to criticise when it worked.

I really liked the way Scienza, Stephens etc consoled him on his way off the pitch. Not even the slightest hint of criticism. It’s indicative we’ve got a really tight knitted squad looking out for each other, doubtless galvanised by last season’s debacle. Good times lay ahead imo.

Well, we do like to make life hard for ourselves. Even when we were looking good in the first half, the formation looked weird and lopsided on the right hand side. You could argue that it worked as it was where the goal was scored, but Bree was being asked to do a hell of a lot. It looked like either Stephens or JWP were meant to drop in at right back when he was off up the pitch, but neither of them really seemed to know whose job it was, and Pompey were getting a lot of joy in behind down that side. A team with any quality may have punished us a lot more. We were way superior until the red card, but I thought Bragg was having a poor game even before that and it was a big call to put him in for such a pressurised game. I'm glad the red didn't cost us the match. He's a Saints fan and a young lad and it could have seriously impacted him. As it is, he got away with one, and hopefully he'll learn from it and use the experience to develop. I really liked how the manager and players all went to him to support him. Great team spirit. Pompey were atrocious in the final third. Once they had the extra man they were getting into some good positions, but their crossing was appalling and when they did get a sight of goal they had zero composure. Again, a better side could have punished us. But what a fantastic, gritty, fighting performance from Saints in the second half. Really dug in, everyone fighting for each other and giving absolutely everything. Stephens, Schlotterbeck, Bree the warrior with his head stuck together with tape and Downes were all outstanding. Proper dogs of war stuff. Azaz though - wow. A stunning performance. His vision and quality of passing is just something else. But then who knew he had that in him as the makeshift number nine, playing with his back to goal, holding it up and giving us an out ball? He was asked to play three different roles during that game and was different class in all of them. Very interesting that when it came to the crunch Tonda chose to play him up there and leave Mubama on the bench. He mentioned more than once in his post-match interview on Sky that he needed someone up there he knew he could trust. Goes to show the very high regard in which he holds Azaz, and is maybe quite telling that he realises that Mubama is not quite ready yet. To give them an extra man for half the match and still beat them though, it doesn't get much sweeter than that. It's been a long time coming but we deserved it. And a final word to the fans, who were absolutely magnificent from the first minute to the last. The place was rocking and our fans were all you could hear. What a week. Spygate finally behind us, Tonda in the dugout and out fighting that lot with ten men for a win we fully deserved. COYS

Great, gutsy, battling performance. Repeating myself from during the match: I really, really expected TE to put Wood on and go 3 CBs. So, so pleased he didn't. Sticking Azaz up top was inspired too. A much better outball than Divin would have offered. We're really going to kick on from this past week. Terrific Sunday. Old Peculiar in the garden while the roast cooks? Oh go on then!

So does joined-up writing or using an abacus tbf.

Great to see him as part of the Sky team today and looked very happy with the result.

Well, we got the win which is really all that matters in these games so everyone rejoice and have a few beverages of your choice this afternoon. But clearly a few concerns and lessons to be learned as well. On the positive side, we got the clean sheet we've been looking for and by and large I thought we managed the second half pretty well with 10 men, limiting them to what you would call scrappy chances rather than clear goalscoring opportunities. Azaz has well and truly put to bed any accusations of him being a flat track bully in the early part of his Saints career, he has been immense in quite a few big games now including today, no one can accuse him of not turning up when it matters now. And the move by Tonda to put him up top when Larin tired was very smart, his intelligence on the ball and winning of free kicks really helped us relieve any pressure in the last part of the game. But we did of course make it much harder for ourselves than it should have been. I'm a big fan of Tonda and he's done much more right than wrong since he's been manager but I think there's been a few signs recently of him trying to be too clever when it's not needed. I couldn't see any need for changing the formation today, I can understand going to 3 in midfield if we are away to a strong side, but without being arrogant, man for man, we should be way better than Pompey's team so at home off the back of a great home run, why switch formation like that? I felt unsurprisingly it resulted in us taking time to settle in the first half and also introduced the inexperience of Bragg in a game he wasn't suited to. He clearly fucked up badly with the second challenge but I hope he is not slaughtered for this as he is a young player who has shown enough promise in a Saints shirt so far to think he has the chance to be a decent player if we manage him right. Hopefully he will learn from this experience and sure he will still have an important role to play this season, albeit it is great to see Jander back today and in contention for starts again now.