Saints 'willing to suffer' in FA Cup win at Fulham

Southampton boss Tonda Eckert said that his side were "willing to suffer" in their FA Cup win over Fulham.

With the tie goalless after 90 minutes, Saints won a penalty in added time which was dispatched by Ross Stewart to send them through to the quarter-finals.

Eckert's side conceded most of the possesion to their Premier League opponents at Craven Cottage and faced 24 shots, with six of those on target and two goals disallowed.

But Saints created some good chances of their own, and found a breakthrough late on when Finn Azaz was brought down by Joachim Andersen in the box.

"We are willing to suffer; I think that's been a thing for this football club for a long time," Eckert told BBC Radio Solent.

"Not everything is just going to look beautiful on the eye and I think we did have some good moments on the ball.

"It's a top team that we faced today and you just need to make sure that you are able to find a structure to defend, but first and foremost a desire to put your body on the line when blocking that last shot and I think we did that today.

"It's something that we've been working on for a long time in the league."

Southampton have been one of the form teams in the Championship this year and currently sit four points outside of the play-off places in eighth.

This season the club are celebrating the 50th anniversairy of their FA Cup win in 1976, and have reached the last eight for the first time since the 2021-22 season.

They last reached the semi-finals the season before that when they were knocked out by the eventual winners Leicester City.

Eckert is hoping his side can continue to build on what has been a strong 2026 so far.

"We know how tough that is to get into winning moments," he added.

"If you have the feeling that you go to play for three points, or to go into the next round, I think you just need to make sure you keep that going.

"We had a couple of changes in there, but I think we went quite strong today and that might cost us a couple of per cent in the legs, but I think it will compensate by what we have taken out of the game mentally."

The draw for the FA Cup quarter-finals is on Monday at 19:00 GMT on TNT Sports.