A deserved draw was enough to keep the feel-good spirit at Coventry after Friday’s last-minute takeover, which kept the club out of administration and saved them from a 10-point deduction. The huge relief after Ray Ranson and his SISU Capital consortium finalised their takeover of the club - including their £38m of debt - was followed with an ordinary 90 minutes.

So instead of hosting Southampton while being joint bottom, Coventry came into the game with an eye to the playoffs and a spring in their step. The fans gave warm applause to the retiring chairman Joe Elliott and noisy welcome to the new one.

On four minutes the party almost came screeching to a halt. Stern John put the ball in the net from close range after a brilliant counter-attack, but the “goal” was ruled out for offside. Saints manager George Burley said he was surprised when it was ruled out and thought it should have been allowed to stand, but from then on it was mainly Coventry. Michael Mifsud kept troubling the Saints defence and on 18 minutes his shot was deflected to Leon McKenzie, whose effort was saved by keeper Kelvin Davis, only for Jay Tabb to head the ball in from almost on the goalline.

More followed from the hosts. Coventry’s midfield took control and the team seemed to reach the Saints’ box at will and should have gone to the break further ahead. The best chance fell to Mifsud on 36 minute but the Maltese striker’s shot went wide.

Southampton turned into party poopers in a one-sided second half and took advantage of sloppy defending to equalise when Bradley Wright-Phillips headed in Jason Euell’s perfect cross on 59 minutes. Euell lead the way as Southampton took control of the second period and after 78 minutes Wright-Phillips should have sealed it. Breaking from midfield and with only the keeper Demetrios Konstantopoulos to beat, he drove his shot inches wide in front of the frustrated travelling fans.

In a frantic finish, Coventry held on to their point despite growing pressure from the visitors and in the end one point was enough not to ruin a great week for them. It was poor second-half display from Iain Dowie’s team, but the fans could look at it as being nine points better off than they might have been.

“We had the feel-good factor”, said Dowie, “and played well in the first half. We dominated the game but they score from the only meaningful attack. We lack the killer instinct but we had our chances.”

Star man: Jason Euell (Southampton)

Player ratings

Coventry City: Konstantopoulos 7, McNamee 5, Ward 6, Turner 6, Borrowdale 6, Doyle 6, Tabb 6 (Osbourne 78min), Hughes 5, McKenzie 7 (Gray 70min), Mifsud 7, Best 6 (Adebola 72min)

Southampton: Davis 7, Wright 6, Bannett 6, Davies 6, Skacel 6, Surman 7, Hammill 7 (Viafara 68min), Euell 7, Safri 7, Wright-Phillips 7 (Saganowski 83min), John 7

Scorers: Coventry: Tabb 19 Southampton:Wright-Phillips 59