Saido Berahino returned to the West Brom squad on Saturday after his transfer request was rejected last month but had little impact in a 0-0 draw at home to Southampton.

Berahino, who had vowed never to play for Baggies chairman Jeremy Peace again after the club blocked a move to Tottenham Hotspur, received a mixed reception at The Hawthorns after coming on as a 55th-minute substitute for Rickie Lambert.

Baggies manager Tony Pulis handed defender Jonny Evans his debut following the Northern Irishman's arrival from Manchester United while Virgil van Dijk started in Southampton's backline after joining from Celtic.

West Brom saw a penalty appeal waved away on the quarter hour after Callum McManaman went to ground somewhat theatrically while Jay Rodriguez missed a chance to end his long goal drought when he nodded wide from a Dusan Tadic cross down at the other end.

Rodriguez's last Premier League goal came in March 2014, just before the England international suffered a serious knee injury that sidelined him for 16 months.

Tadic represented the biggest danger for the home defence although the Serbian spurned an opportunity to shoot midway through the second half in favour of cutting the ball back for James Ward-Prowse with the England Under-21 international firing over.

Graziano Pelle nearly broke the deadlock with 70 minutes gone but the Italian couldn't quite stretch far enough to make contact with a pass from Steven Davis.

Sadio Mane was brought off the Southampton bench as the visitors sought to snatch a winner late on but the Senegalese steered wide after being put through by Pelle with both sides forced to settle for a point.