A controversial penalty by Francisco De Pedro nine minutes into the second half ensured Saints' final warm-up game ended in defeat at The Dell.

Wayne Bridge was harshly judged to have pushed French mid-fielder Collet on a run into the box and De Pedro calmly steered the spot kick just inside the left-hand post, sending Paul Jones the wrong way.

Saints had got off to an awful start, going behind after just two minutes when a free kick on the left edge of the area by Inigo Idiakez flashed in at the near post.

But Southampton levelled in bizarre fashion on 14 minutes when a long throw on the right by Matthew Oakley flew across the face of goal and appeared to go in off the shoulder of Zuhaitz Gurrutxaga under pressure from Marian Pahars, who was later credited with the goal.

Saints thought they had levelled for a second time after 69 minutes when Matthew Le Tissier hit a trademark 20-yard volley, but the effort was ruled out for a foul by Uwe Rosler.

Rosler, who flicked just over the bar in the first half, missed two good chances in the final five minutes from close range before Le Tissier picked up a knock and was replaced by James Beattie.

Tony Pulis didn't get his Portsmouth campaign off to a very good start when they went down 2-0 at Sheffield United while AFC Bournemouth held Bristol Rovers to a 1-1 draw with new boy Chukki Eribenne equalising on his debut.

FOR FULL MATCH REPORTS AND PICTURES SEE TONIGHT'S PINK AND MONDAY'S DAILY ECHO

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.