Mauricio Pellegrino praises Southampton response at Bournemouth

Sunday 3 December 2017 16:57, UK

Mauricio Pellegrino praised Southampton's second-half response as they fought back from a goal to draw at south-coast rivals Bournemouth.

Ryan Fraser fired the Cherries ahead just before half-time at the Vitality Stadium but Charlie Austin claimed a point with his third goal in two games in the second half.

"I was encouraged with our good reaction," Pellegrino told Sky Sports. "Sometimes the opponents controlled the situation, sometimes we controlled things better than them.

"That is football, that is our job. Sometimes we have to control the ball to be more comfortable. They pressed well impressively at the beginning but our reaction was positive.

"It was a tight game but both teams wanted to win the game with their ideas. For the ninth time we made a mistake at this level that we cannot concede. But in the second half we were much better and we equalised.

"But until the end the game was up and down all the time with both teams showing they want to win. It's one point, we obviously wanted three, but we couldn't get them."

Southampton made the short trip to Bournemouth looking to bounce back from their agonising defeat to Manchester City, which came three days after they thrashed Everton.

On the back foot and a goal down at the break, Pellegrino brought on Nathan Redmond at half-time, and the substitution had the desired effect as he laid on the equaliser for Austin.

"We were looking to have more pace and penetration in the space between the full-back and centre-back and to try something different," the Saints boss added.

"The attitude in general in the second half was much better and it's good news for us that Charlie continued scoring.

"We competed well against Everton - that was our best game. Against City and today was different.

"We approached the game with personality, started well but at the end of the first half they were better than us. But in the second half our reaction was really positive."