Southampton boss Tonda Eckert is looking forward to his second South Coast derby in the dug-out but feels home soil will make a difference.

The Championship resumes tonight following the three week international break, but the major event is at St Mary’s on Sunday when South Coast rivals Southampton and Portsmouth clash.

The Saints boss goes into the game with a clear head after his position in the dug-out was secured following an independent regulatory judgement to hand him a suspended term – along with a £28,000 fine – for his part in the Spygate affair in May.

Eckert can now concentrate fully on Portsmouth and he is, like everyone else, looking forward to the game this weekend.

Tonda Eckert highlights South Coast derby relevance as dual Middlesbrough claim made

Saints manager Tonda Eckert spoke for the first time after the FA hearing judgement yesterday ahead of the South Coast derby.

While Southampton’s ultimate aim is to get into the Premier League, which can throw up significant games against fellow promotion challengers occasionally, Eckert maintains Derby Day is the biggest game on the calendar for his side.

But he also joked, considering what has happened in previous months, that the game against Middlesbrough in late November would also be important.I think there’s no greater game,” the Saints leader told the Daily Echo. “Maybe there’s another one coming up at the end of November.

But I think this is a game that we’re all looking forward to. “I have the pleasure to be on the sideline to make sure we do everything to get it to our path.

With all the buzz around Southampton and their head coach over the international break, Eckert is convinced the group have trained well, and are ready to put in a positive performance, hoping to end this current trend of four consecutive league draws in this fixture.“I am very comfortable,” he added. I watch the boys and how they’ve trained and I see they know what it means. “We’re going to give everything we have on the pitch.”

Home edge will be key, says Tonda Eckert ahead of first St Mary’s Derby Day

Eckert was at the stadium for the St Mary’s meeting between Southampton and Portsmouth but was there as Under-21 manager – the post he had before being initially put in interim charge after Will Still’s resignation.

That game was a dreary, goalless affair and although he was in charge for the 1-1 setback at Fratton Park, the Saints boss is expecting an entirely different match-up as this one is at St Mary’s.

Eckert said Derby Day atmospheres tend to influence the way you approach games. The 33-year-old thinks his side can be a bit more front footed at home against Southampton, since it is difficult to play the manner you want in a hostile environment.

Southampton at home in the Championship this season

Games & Activities

4

Victorys

4

Draws 0

Losses 0 Goals Scored

15

Goals let in

4 ““I was in the stadium for the home game that we played and obviously I’ve been on the sideline for the away game in January,” he added.You may try to make home and away games the same as much as you want but they are different, especially in a derby, not in terms of intensity. But I think we will go into the game differently to how we have gone into the away game in terms of how we approach it strategically.I am extremely confident that once we get our football out on the pitch we have the quality to make sure the game goes our way.”

Spygate verdict gives Southampton lift for Derby Day

It’s a cliché, but on Derby Day form and circumstance go out the window and both sides tend to take the gloves off and go for the win. You can’t but believe that had the ruling from the FA hearing not been delivered this week it would’ve had some bearing on Sunday.

Southampton would have come into the match still concerned about the future of their head coach, which may distract the players and lead to a quite subdued audience in a game that needs the exact opposite.

Instead Saints go in on this one together. The audience will be completely behind the coach and the squad and it may be a really tough place for Portsmouth to come and get anything.

Whatever the outcome it promises to be a show on Sunday and from a neutral’s point of view, there will hopefully be a bit more entertainment than the cagey affair put up at St Mary’s last September.