But now the pressure is mounting on Saints boss Tonda Eckert, whose team selection has come under fire after an intense game in which key players were left out of the side.
Players have it in them
All the pre-match talk from the red side of Hampshire was over whether the Saints players would have the bottle to go to an intense Fratton Park and perform.
With no doubt about the squad's ability, it was down to whether the players would turn up, as they have often failed to do in the Sport Republic era.
But the players certainly did turn up, seemingly unfazed by the atmosphere.
On an Instagram post - written after the match, Leo Scienza wrote:
“In the first half, I went there [to the Portsmouth fans] to get a ball, got spit on, got pulled, and they throw the ball away just for fun. Then I scored a goal, also wanted to have some fun and just give them the same “love” back. Fair play.“
The Pompey fans pulled out all of the tricks to put off the Saints players, but the home side’s frustrating equaliser only came down to a dodgy set piece, which Southampton failed to deal with.
Tale as old as time
Leo Scienza’s 57th-minute goal had the feel about it of a match-winner, in a tightly-contested affair.
The home side only created 0.29 xG from open play, contrasting with 1.11 from Southampton, completely relying on balls into the box from set-piece situations for chance creation.
However, Southampton’s xG from set plays was a total of 0. Once again, their downfall came from dead-ball situations.
Despite playing without a single natural centre-back, the home side won 39 aerial duels against Southampton’s 24.
In a direct game, 76 out of Southampton’s 156 forward passes were long balls. With Adam Armstrong as the lone striker, the Saints struggled to make it stick, while Ross Stewart sat on the bench.
While Stewart’s injury-proneness needs to be taken into account, he could have been rested in midweek to start this game, or been given sixty minutes in each fixture.
Sport Republic have a big summer decision to make
The players showed on derby day that they can turn up and rally together.
But the decisions to leave out Tom Fellows and Ross Stewart were strange ones - with a better setup from the beginning, they might have turned one point into three.
Manager, Tonda Eckert's contract expires in the summer of 2027, but the Saints cannot afford to take any more risks, with only one more instalment of parachute payments to come after their immediate relegation back to the Championship.
The Saints now sit seven points off the play-offs, but the club, as it stands, is nowhere near ready to return to the top flight anytime soon.