West Brom dominated the opening half and took a deserved lead into the break courtesy of Isaac Price’s penalty and could have had more while Southampton failed to register a single shot.

But Saints came out of the interval a different team and got an equaliser eight minutes in the second half through Samuel Edozie which meant both sides continued their respective unbeaten runs.

Eckert’s side were dangerous in the second period, but he thought taking a point was a fair result.

He said: “Two very different halves. Take the first half, it’s a quick turnaround and I think we’ve given them too much respect in the first half.

“Second half was a completely different game, there’s a couple of chances in there to win it in the second half. If you look at the 90 minutes today I think you take the point. I think it is a fair result, we take it and move on to Preston.

“Two teams that played to win. We had chances to score a second one but fair play to West Brom, they are a good team and not easy to come up against.

“We need to make sure we get three (points) on Saturday, then I think we have played a decent first block.”

Both teams could have climbed to second in the table, and Southampton missed a clear-cut chance to snatch the win when Lewis Dobbin aimed at Max O’Leary in the second half.

Eckert admits both sides had chances to win the game.

He added: “There was a long spell in the second half when it was coming more and more in our direction.

“You create those chances but fair play to West Brom. They had a couple of moments also from open play where they got into dangerous situations.

“We wanted to win the game. I think it was there to take all three points but it’s a fair result.”

West Brom temporarily went to second in the table until Saints equalised.

Baggies boss James Morrison thought his side could have had more of a cushion in the first half until Southampton finally found their feet.

He said: “Two very good teams. Thought we were really good first half. My only critic really is could we have scored one more and give us a bit more of a cushion.

“The energy we put into it, it was going to be hard to replicate that second half. With them being such a good team, the reaction came and we just couldn’t see it out.

“Both teams had chances and it was a good advertisement for the Championship. On a whole, it’s a very good performance.

“You expect that (a reaction), because we were so dominant. To limit Southampton to no shots on our goal. We just couldn’t get through that 10 minutes where they had it.”