THE wind was swirling in off the Solent, hailstones were lashing down from the skies, in fact conditions were downright ugly to play football.

After five weeks out with a knee ligament injury and with just two training sessions under his belt, Brett Ormerod was settling down for a quiet afternoon wrapped-up snuggly on the substitutes' bench.

He could have so easily opted out altogether.

But aware that Southampton were shorn of strikers through injury and suspension, the 25-year-old told manager Gordon Strachan on Thursday that he was ready to play despite being woefully short of match fitness.

And after 20 minutes, when Pahars turned sharply close to the half-way line damaging his groin, Ormerod was given his chance to take his place alongside Jo Tessem in an untested forward line.

"Surprised?" asked Ormerod. "I was surprised to be training on Thursday. It was touch and go whether I would start training then.

"I had two injections in my knee earlier this week, and it felt fine.

"I was just knackered afterwards. I felt a yard or two off the pace, but you would expect that having been out of it for so long."

For Strachan, he was full of admiration for Ormerod, and took the young striker's tenacity as one of the plus points from an otherwise disappointing afternoon.

"Ormerod was absolutely magnificent," enthused the Saints manager, admitting how he had been taken aback by Ormerod's desire to get involved.

"Ormerod jagged his knee on Monday and came to me on Thursday and said he'd give it a bash. No fan gives you any sympathy once you go across that while line - but he helped us out of a hole.

"He has only trained once, so he gets ten out of ten for sheer guts and is my man of the match."

Strachan didn't wear the look of a man desperately unhappy with the result from a scrappy game ruined by the weather and where chances were at a premium. It was marred by Rory Delap's late dismissal after collecting a second yellow card.

The first half was very tentative. "Two nervous teams," reckoned Strachan, who had instructed the pitch to be watered beforehand to help them move the ball around quicker.

"It wasn't easy to play football," offered his opposite number, Sam Allardyce. "It was difficult to keep the ball on the floor and to pass it around.

"Southampton are very good at home and the conditions we had to endure were difficult.

"The wind could have made something happen and cost us the game."

And, in fact, Allardyce was so nearly toasting a half-time lead but for the agility of Southampton goalkeeper, Paul Jones.

First he tipped over a header from Youri Djorkaeff on the quarter-hour, and then the Welshman managed to tip round the post a stinging 30-yard free-kick from Stig Tofting. "I was pleased with the free-kick," said Jones.

"The ball took a deflection off Rory Delap's head. I was going the wrong way, but managed to get across to it. It was good to get a clean sheet, and more important that we did not lose."

Delap tested Bolton goalkeeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, with a low 25-yard strike in the first half, but that was all Saints had to show for their efforts after 45 minutes.

Strachan needed his players to be more positive in the second half, to run at the opposition, to put crosses and men into the box.

Fabrice Fernandes blew an absolute sitter after 51 minutes, unmarked from Chris Marsden's deep cross which he struggled to control and then found the back of the Chapel Stand with his right-footed effort eight yards out.

Ormerod later crashed a right-foot volley wide after Anders Svensson chested the ball down, and he also headed a chance over the bar.

With 17 minutes left Tessem, who never really asked too many questions of the Bolton defence, came close. He tried to bundle the ball over from close range, though ex-Saint Rod Wallace, on as a substitute, very nearly made the Norwegian pay with a swift counter-attack, but his finish too was poor.

Tessem had one a final part to play on the stroke of full-time, by which time Saints were down to 10 men. Svensson had been brought down by Tofting and Delap, already booked for a foul in the first half, apparently kicked the Danish player. Early exit Mr Delap.

From the free-kick, right on the D of the Bolton penalty area, Tessem took aim, and once again the Chapel Stand regulars were on ball-collecting duty.

A point was a point, and though he would have liked three, Strachan added: "We did enough to win the game, but we also did enough not to lose it.

"I was encouraged because I have seen 12 players play well, I have seen some players play although they were carrying injuries, and some who should not have even played."