Saints players unaffected by spying claims - Jander

Caspar Jander (right) featured in Southampton's draw with Middlesbrough [Shutterstock]

Southampton midfielder Caspar Jander insists the club being charged with spying on Middlesbrough was 'not a big topic' for the players before their play-off match at the Riverside Stadium.

Saints were charged by the English Football League on Friday after BBC Sport learned that a performance analyst was alleged to have recorded Boro training and taken pictures of tactics on Thursday morning.

The news impacted the atmosphere on Saturday morning, with Southampton's coach the target of abuse and chants of "cheats" as they arrived at the ground.

But Jander told BBC Radio Solent: "This wasn't really a big topic for me and for the team.

"We didn't make it a big thing. We didn't really care about it and just tried to play football."

The game ended 0-0, with Saints having to absorb plenty of Middlesbrough pressure early on before finishing the game strongly.

The second leg is on Tuesday, when Boro will travel to St Mary's and the teams will compete for a place in the Championship play-off final.

"I think we can be happy about the result. It was a very difficult first half," Jander added.

"In the end, with a little bit of luck, we could have even won. But we take the 0-0 for now and go again on Tuesday.

"We didn't want to stay so low in our half and let them have so many chances, but we changed some things for the second half that made us stronger.

"I think we take the 0-0, not be fully happy because we wanted to win, but when you look at the first half we can be happy to not concede one or two goals

"We can go confident at St Mary's and take the win there."

Jander joined Southampton in the summer from German side FC Nuremberg and has since made 42 appearances, scoring two goals.