Ronaldo Koeman proud of Southampton players after Tottenham draw

Ronald Koeman says he is proud of his players after Southampton's 2-2 draw at home to Tottenham.

Southampton were twice pegged back by the visitors at St Mary’s and while Koeman was disappointed not to take all three points from the game, he was happy with his team’s performance.

"I'm proud of the team," he told Southampton's official website. "I'm a little bit disappointed because if you go two times in front in the game then normally you expect to win. But one mistake defensively for the 2-2, they punished us for that.

"But I'm proud of all the players. It was a great football game today and the support and reaction of the fans after the game means a lot.

"We played well. We played at our level. Until the last second we were fighting to win the game and a little unlucky about the last header of Jose Fonte. But how we played today, that’s enjoyable for the manager.

"The lads showed today our level and why we stayed up in the table."

After Graziano Pelle's opener, Erik Lamela levelled just before half-time, and Koeman was pleased with the way his team reacted to that setback.

However, he admitted some frustration with his defence’s failure to prevent Nacer Chadli cancelling out Pelle’s second.

The Saints boss added: "It's always painful if you [concede] just before half-time. It was handball but it was so difficult for the referee to get that. But our reaction and how we played the second half was very good.

"In the second half, we had some good chances to score, maybe the best was for Steven Davis. But to score goals you have to shoot on target!

"Our feeling was we had more chances to win. But you have to respect the opponent, they are strong. It’s difficult to beat Tottenham but we played well.

"Normally our defence organisation is better than we had at that moment [of the second Tottenham goal]. We gave too much space to Chadli and they punished ourselves."