DANNY Seaborne took a real battering upon his return to St James's Park — both from his former teammates and a small section of Exeter City's supporters.

An early whack in the face left the 22-year-old Southampton defender with a nasty gash above his left eye. And Seaborne, who had to change his blood-spattered shirt no less than four times, received a hostile reception from some supporters who were clearly irked by some of his pre-match comments.

The defender had claimed prior to Southampton's visit to St James's Park that the Devon club had reached a plateau in their search for success.

Many fans, however, chose to applaud the former Grecians skipper, showing respect for his achievements with the club prior to his £275,000 move to St Mary's.

Yet with attitudes on the terraces divided — Seaborne always was a player who polarised opinion among City fans — his old teammates were glad to see him.

Grecians skipper Matt Taylor said: "I had a chat with him (Seaborne) and he looked a bit battered and bruised.

"He had a cut on his eye and hopefully he will be okay. He is a top lad who has been excellent for this club and we wish him all the best. It is a great move for him and hopefully Southampton will go on and get promoted now."

As it turned out, Seaborne had to settle for a point on his return as Taylor cancelled out Adam Lallana's first-half opener with a booming 49th-minute header.

City boss Paul Tisdale was pleased with his side's resilience.

He said: "This result shows that we are able to compete with the very best in this league and Southampton are one of the very best.

"We have drawn the last two games against two very good sides and that just shows you the resilience we have got in the team.

"That will be a nice trait to have between now and the end of the season. We are well equipped with the level we are playing at and it is now about using that knowledge and improving our performances.

"We are not far away from being a good side and it is going to be a very interesting end to the season."

Tisdale says that a draw was a fair result, although he reckons City were the most likely to grab a winner in the second half.

Kelvin Davis produced a wonder save to tip Bertie Cozic's piledriver on to the post in stoppage time – a stop that even had Tisdale purring.

He said: "Their keeper is one of the best, if not the best in the league and that was a wonderful save.

"Barry (Corr) had a good chance but he couldn't quite sort his feet out quickly enough. But we have come off with a point and I am not too unhappy about that.

"The goal we scored was a very well executed corner and a very good finish. Between the equaliser and the final whistle I would say that we had the flow of the game and the impetus. If anyone was going to score a goal it was more likely to have been us."

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