Saints midfielder Dean Hammond scored against his former club after winger Alex Chamberlain had given the visitors a 30th-minute lead, while Mooney was shown a straight red card by referee Phil Gibbs two minutes later for pushing Southampton right-back Danny Butterfield.
Adkins said: "We had to grind out the situation. We wanted to get on the football, but we couldn't because it was a battle.
"When you come away from home you have to weather the storm a little bit. We scored a very good goal to put us in the lead and then the referee changed the complexion of the game a little bit with the sending off.
"But great credit to our players, because it was a challenge for the referee and we didn't give him the opportunity to even it up.
"They were very disciplined, especially Lee Barnard, who kept getting booted all over the place. We got the second goal and we made sure that we kept 11 players on the pitch, which was important."
Source: PA
Source: PA