This continues to be a season of struggle for Southampton, but they showed enough gumption here to avoid losing 10 consecutive top-flight away games for the first time since 1974.
Russell Martin made four changes to the side which led then lost to Liverpool, including a Premier League debut for 29-year-old goalkeeper Joe Lumley in place of Alex McCarthy, dropped after an unconvincing performance against the Reds.
Old issues remained – Lumley had to make a close-range save after just six minutes when his defence gave the ball away in their own box, while he was nearly caught out of position when Mitoma caught Sugawara unawares, only to shoot wide.
Lumley, playing his first league game since April 2023 for Reading in the third tier, badly mishit a clearance early in the second half and was lucky to escape unpunished.
But they improved after the break and were ultimately good value for a point – although given the controversial intervention of VAR, they may feel robbed of all three.
On the other hand, scorer Flynn Downes was perhaps lucky to still be on the pitch after committing several fouls for only a booking.
