Forty minutes after the final whistle the 1,981 delirious away supporters continued to serenade the victorious Southampton players and their manager, Ralph Hasenhüttl. “Four-nil, in your own backyard” was the haunting, whirring retort on repeat from those fans crammed into the Milton End after a first-half double by Danny Ings set Southampton for their first win here since 1984, before Cédric Soares and Nathan Redmond lashed home to seal victory in an electric derby.
The atmosphere was feverish long before Mike Oldfield’s Portsmouth song filled the terraces of this rickety stadium but in the end the chasm between these sides – 50 places in the league pyramid – was explicitly clear, with a clinical Southampton side profiting where Portsmouth tried and failed; John Marquis clipped a post, Brett Pitman forced Alex McCarthy into a save and Christian Burgess stabbed wide but Southampton ultimately sauntered to victory after a sluggish start. Hasenhüttl was a picture of calm throughout but once a first win over Portsmouth since 2005 was secure he too was happy to soak up the adulation.