Ralph Hasenhuttl hailed his side’s character as Saints dug in to earn a 1-1 draw against Manchester United despite being reduced to ten men.

At the end of a tough but productive week Saints had to show great resilience to hold off United after Kevin Danso was sent off for a second bookable offence with 17 minutes remaining at St Mary’s.

They did see off United’s threat to make it two wins and a draw in the space of just a matter of days heading into the first international break of the season.

A delighted Hasenhuttl said: “Absolutely pleased and very proud of my team, and not only my team but the whole stadium and the crowd and how they pushed us in the end and how they energised us.

“It was very important after this really tough week with the game on Tuesday, a third game in a week and injuries and the red card and in the end it was only about the character and mentality and the guys showed a lot of it. They deserved to get this point and we are happy.”

Saints fell behind after just ten minutes but improved massively in the second half.

They equalised through Jannik Vestergaard and then survived the late scare after Danso’s red card.

“I saw a very good first ten minutes from us where we were very aggressive, good high ball wins and a big chance for Che Adams and then it was really a tough moment where we one time not good organised,” reflected Hasenhuttl.

“It was the first time we were playing this shape against a big team and they played it fantastic. A short switch is hard to defend and we were not good organised in that moment and the next minutes you could feel they get more confidence and we were a little bit down.

“But I also saw in the end of the first half we are believing in what we are doing and at half time we showed a few scenes about how we can make it better against the ball and second half we had more ball wins and more chances to set them under pressure.

“They made mistakes and we were always aggressive and brave and early attacking and that is nice for no team.

“They never got in no rhythm in the second half and we make the equaliser and afterwards I feel we are believing we can take this points also but the red card changed this.”