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West Brom boss Alan Irvine happy with point

West Brom boss Alan Irvine praised his team after seeing them pick up a point at Southampton.

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It was the second draw in two Premier League games under Irvine and the head coach was delighted with the first clean sheet of his reign.

"I'm very, very pleased with that defensive display," said Irvine. "I thought we were really solid. I saw Southampton play at Anfield last week and they looked a real threat going forward.

"But we were able to make sure they weren't able to cut us open today. I was pleased about that and pleased with how we passed the ball at times.

"At other times I was a bit disappointed because we gave it away to cheaply. But overall I was happy with the performance. It is a difficult place to come.

"I'm not unhappy with a point – that's for sure. There were times when we passed the ball well and I said to the boys afterwards when we did that we were able to move up the pitch really well and got into some really good positions.

"We just let ourselves down at different times. We made some wrong choices and I'm delighted with where the team are at this moment in time.

"It's a team that's only been together for the last two weeks. Prior to that we had ten to 11 players who were working on a daily basis with young players.

"So our meaningful work has only really happened in the last couple of weeks. I was disappointed with just a point last week.

"I wasn't disappointed today coming here and getting a point – I expected this to be a really difficult game.

"We're looking to bring in another couple of players before the window closes.

"And they will be creative players at the top end of the pitch."

Baggies fans got their first glimpse of £10m club-record signing Brown Ideye, who was denied a debut goal as a second-half substitute by a fine Fraser Forster save.

Irvine said: "Full marks to him because he's only just in the country. He's done very little training, he hasn't had a pre-season and Jason Davidson is the same.

"We've got players sitting on our bench at the moment that aren't ready yet. They're two of them – but they did really well when they came on and I was delighted with them.

"Brown's a good finisher. I expected him to score having done really well to create the chance. It was a good save so we can't take that away from Fraser Forster.

"That's his biggest thing; he's a good finisher, he's got good movement to get in behind defences.

"He's different to Victor, Victor plays more with his back to goal, but Brown can make those runs in behind people.

"You saw just a little glimpse of the kind of things he might be able to bring us."

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