Football: Bottom two show appetite for fight

Nottingham Forest 1 Southampton 1

THE PREMIERSHIP'S bottom two sides brought a new meaning to the term "relegation dogfight" yesterday by sharing the points after 90 minutes of the scrappiest play seen anywhere this season.

At one stage in the second half - after Southampton's Hassan Kachloul had given his side the lead with a header and then Steve Chettle had levelled with a penalty - the match literally descended into a fight.

Southampton's French defender, Patrick Colleter, went to retrieve a dead ball from the Forest dug-out, but instead of returning with it he received a shove from a player sitting on the home bench.

Seeing his team-mate in trouble, Kachloul waded into the fray. Most of the Forest bench and several players from each side piled in, arms flying. It took about two minutes for the referee, Mike Reed - who did not book anyone over the incident - to break up the melee, and play was able to resume.

As an example of the kind of action witnessed yesterday, it was appropriate. For all the football that took place it might well have been better to put all the players in the centre circle and let them have it out with a bare knuckle dust-up.

"It was a full-blooded, hard fought match," Dave Jones, the Southampton manager, said afterwards. "There were no punches thrown, just some shoving and pushing," he added of the touchline fracas.

"The most important thing today for us was not to lose the game," he added. "Both teams were fully committed. They wanted to win."

Dave Bassett, Jones' counterpart, summarised the game in a similar fashion, praising both sets of players for their spirit and saying the confrontation around the dug-out was "just some handbags and some verbals".

Despite a protest outside, calling for his own head and for those of the Forest board, he said: "It's frustrating where we are. But we've got to get on with what we've got."

The first real chance of the game came after 10 minutes when Egil Ostenstad controlled the ball in the box , managing to spin around and attempt a shot from five yards. Unfortunately for him, he hit it straight into the chest of the former Saints goalkeeper, Dave Beasant.

Fifteen minutes later, the man who replaced him at The Dell, Paul Jones, nearly gifted the home side a lead. A Dougie Freedman shot was skied by Ken Monkou, and Jones, under no pressure and with several seconds to steady himself for the falling ball, let it slip through his arms. Somehow the defenders scrambled it away as Freedman pounced.

Goalmouth scrambles and sloppy missed chances occurred at both ends in both halves but there was no breakthrough until Kachloul got on the end of a corner three minutes into the second half to put the visitors ahead.

Five minutes later, after Forest were given a penalty for a Jones challenge on Freedman as he ran for goal, Chettle equalised with a penalty. The match, like both sides' chances of Premiership survival, then slid rapidly downhill.

Goals: Kachloul (48) 0-1; Chettle (pen 53) 1-1.

Nottingham Forest (4-4-2): Beasant; Hjelde, Chettle, Gemmill, Rogers; Stone, Bonalair, Johnson, Bart-Williams; Freedman (Harewood, 75), Shipperley. Substitutes not used: Louis-Jean, Armstrong, Gray, Crossley (gk).

Southampton (4-4-2): Jones; Colleter, Lundekvam, Monkou, Hiley; Kachloul, Palmer, Oakley, Dodd; Ostenstad, Beattie. Substitutes not used: Bridge, Monk, Dryden, Basham, Stensgaard (gk).

Referee: M Reed (Birmingham).

Bookings: Nottingham Forest: Stone, Freedman. Southampton: Palmer, Kachloul.

Man of the match: Stone.

Attendance: 23,456.