Southampton holds wasteful Boro in spygate stoush
Middlesbrough was left to rue a glut of missed opportunities as it was held to a 0-0 draw by Southampton in the first leg of their EFL Championship play-off semi-final.
Kim Hellberg's side was fuelled ahead of kick-off after Southampton was charged for allegedly spying on its opponent, but Boro was unable to find a way through at Riverside Stadium.
Middlesbrough pinned Southampton back from the first whistle and saw its first big chance fall to Morgan Whittaker, who fired his left-footed attempt over the crossbar.
The hosts' dominance continued as Riley McGree skewed his effort agonisingly across goal after being brilliantly picked out by Callum Brittain's cross, before Luke Ayling's sighter had visiting goalkeeper Daniel Peretz worried.
But Middlesbrough's best chance of the half came 10 minutes before the break when Cyle Larin had his pocket pinched by McGree, with the midfielder feeding into Tommy Conway, who saw his curling first-time strike rattle the right post.
Southampton improved after the break and almost snatched the opening goal five minutes after the restart, but Larin was unable to trouble Sol Brynn with his back-post header.
The Saints then came close twice in quick succession when Taylor Harwood-Bellis's 84th-minute header struck the crossbar before substitute Samuel Edozie rolled his attempt just wide, as the scores ended level ahead of Wednesday's (AEST) second leg.
"The first half was the best I have seen on English soil since I arrived here – it was absolutely everything against such a good team," Hellberg said after the match.
"The second half was an even half where it was not as controlled, not as high quality maybe – they had a big chance at the end when they could have scored and that would have been very tough but it didn't go in like it might some weeks earlier.
"I couldn't believe my ears when I heard [about the spying claims]. I thought 'that cannot be right', but I tried to be focused on what we were going to do and go towards the game.
"You can watch all our games and you wouldn't find the structure we played in the first half in any.
"I don't like it, it's terrible - it has nothing to do with their supporters and their players, but it doesn't feel right and I don't like it."
Southampton boss Tonda Eckert wouldn't be drawn on the spying drama.
"The club made a statement [about the spying allegation] yesterday evening and that is all there is to say about it at the moment," he said.
"The story draws attention but these games belong to the players, they are decided by the players and not the coaching staff and that's the important part.
"I've said all there is to say at the moment about that, we need to just focus because the game on Tuesday [Wednesday AEST] is going to need all of our energy."
