![\"Shea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/skysports-efl-championship_7171118.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSouthampton missed the chance to close the gap on the Sky Bet Championship play-offs as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Charlton at St Mary’s.<\/p>\n
Ross Stewart had given Saints a second-half lead but Sonny Carey cancelled it out with the equaliser in the 67th minute.<\/p>\n
Charlton boss Nathan Jones lasted only eight games and 95 days as Southampton manager in the 2022-23 season before being replaced by Ruben Selles.<\/p>\n
The Welshman was taunted throughout by the home support, who certainly have not forgotten his ill-fated spell in charge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Shea Charles shields the ball against Charlton Athletic<\/p>\n
In the reverse fixture at The Valley in November, Southampton blew Charlton away 5-1, with all of their goals coming in the first half.<\/p>\n
Jones was clearly mindful of that and this was a much more cagey affair, despite the Saints enjoying long spells of dominance.<\/p>\n
Southampton went close in the third minute when Leo Scienza’s volley from Tom Fellows’ cross was brilliantly cleared off the line by Lloyd Jones.<\/p>\n
The home side were appealing for a penalty in the 13th minute when Charlton debutant Collins Sichenje tripped Scienza but referee John Busby instead awarded a free-kick just outside the area.<\/p>\n
Tonda Eckert’s side were averaging more than 75 per cent of the possession and constantly probing at Charlton’s stubborn defence.<\/p>\n
They found an opening as Flynn Downes played in Shea Charles but Thomas Kaminski saved his effort from a tight angle.<\/p>\n
Then, from a well-worked corner routine, Ryan Manning struck the crossbar as the pressure continued to build.<\/p>\n
James Bree scored the extra-time winner against Leicester in the FA Cup last weekend and he headed narrowly over after Stewart had flicked Scienza’s corner to the far post.<\/p>\n
Charlton were struggling to get out of their own half but they had a rare opportunity when Carey pulled a shot just beyond the post from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n
Jones will have been delighted with his team’s resilience in the first half but, three minutes after the break, they fell behind.<\/p>\n
Saints’ tormenter-in-chief Scienza teased his way down the left and crossed for Stewart to brilliantly head into the far corner.<\/p>\n
Finally, the game began to open up and Saints were quickly looking to add more with wave after wave of attack.<\/p>\n
Jones responded by bringing Miles Leaburn off the bench and, as the rain drove down, his team found an unlikely equaliser.<\/p>\n
The ball was worked across the area to Carey and Charlton’s top goalscorer picked out the far corner with Daniel Peretz getting a hand to it but failing to keep it out.<\/p>\n
A clash between Downes and Conor Coady then sparked a mass brawl as tensions threated to boil over in the final stages.<\/p>\n
But Jones’ side held on for 10 agonising minutes of stoppage time to leave with a point.<\/p>\n
The managers<\/p>\n
Southampton’s Tonda Eckert:<\/p>\n
“Obviously in those games, especially at home, we play to win, I think that’s very clear.<\/p>\n
“Especially if you go up in the second half, I think that we have done this in a couple of games now where we’ve managed to bring those games over the line or then score a second goal.<\/p>\n
“Didn’t manage it today, so for the moment there’s a little bit of disappointment on the result, but they’ll be gone by tomorrow morning and then we go again on Tuesday.”<\/p>\n
Charlton’s Nathan Jones:<\/p>\n
“I’ve got no affiliation here, really. I was a brief time here. I think I spent more time in Starbucks than I have at this football club, so it’s not the same. But it’s another really testing football club to come back to, because they’re a very good side.<\/p>\n
“They’ve got wonderful players. I think probably the outstanding player in the Championship they have, Leo Scienza, I think there’s very few better than him on his day. But I’m proud of my team. I’m proud of my club.<\/p>\n
“It’s a good point to take away here. These are a really good side at this level. After what they did to us at home when we were too open and gave up too many clear-cut chances, we knew we couldn’t do that and we didn’t.<\/p>\n
“I thought we were really good defensively, very disciplined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southampton missed the chance to close the gap on the Sky Bet Championship play-offs as they were held…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-438651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}