Southampton and West Ham United have failed to break the deadlock in the opening 45 minutes of their Premier League game at St Mary's Stadium.

The Saints started the game the brighter of the two sides, with Adam Lallana showing good movement and attacking intent early on.

Kevin Nolan had a good chance to put the Hammers in front from the edge of the area after seven minutes, but Artur Boruc made the save between the Southampton posts.

Two minutes later Ricardo Vaz Te shot over the crossbar from outside the box, before James Collins intervened to put flight to a Southampton move between Gaston Ramirez and Nathaniel Clyne.

Jack Cork and Lallana combined with each other to force the West Ham defence to drop deep, but Guy Demel made a clearance in the end to deny the former a tap-in.

Then on the half-hour mark Vaz Te outran Fox on the right wing and rolled the ball back across the box for Nolan to shoot at goal, but Southampton defender Jos Hooiveld made a timely block.

The Hammers had goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen to thank 10 minutes before the half-time interval as he made a good save to keep out Rickie Lambert's effort from close range with the help of the post.