Report: Edozie strikes to earn Saints a point

Hosts West Brom had the better of the first period and few could argue they deserved the half-time lead given to them by Isaac Price’s emphatic penalty after Jack Stephens brought down Rabby Nzingoula midway through the half.

Saints had been strangely below par but were a team transformed after the interval, as Edozie swept home from close range to level the scores eight minutes into the second period with his first goal for the club since February 2024.

Both sides pushed for a winner in an engaging contest, but substitute Lewis Dobbin was denied by goalkeeper Max O’Leary as he was sent clean through on goal with 10 minutes to go, leaving Saints to settle for a point.

Tonda Eckert welcomed Flynn Downes back into his midfield and gave a first league start to Divin Mubama, but would have to do without the injured Leo Scienza.

That opened the door for Edozie to start on the left wing, as Cameron Bragg and Dobbin dropped to the bench in the middle of a three-game week.

West Brom, perhaps unsurprisingly, were unchanged following Saturday’s 3-1 win at West Ham, a game that proved to be Nuno Espírito Santo’s last in charge of the Hammers and propelled the Baggies up to fourth in the Championship table.

Samuel Edozie returned to the starting line-up in the absence of the injured Leo Scienza

Among the scorers at the London Stadium was Jimmy-Jay Morgan, a young striker who grew up in the Saints Academy, but he spurned the chance to put his former club behind inside five minutes as the hosts started brightly.

When Price slipped a pass through the defence Morgan was bearing down on goal, but the forward could not add to his seven goals for the season as he blazed over Daniel Peretz’s crossbar.

The Saints stopper was soon called upon to make his first save of the night from Jayson Molumby’s vicious 25-yard drive that had to be helped over.

The visitors were still struggling to find their usual rhythm by the first-half’s midpoint, as Morgan acrobatically volleyed over from Nzingoula’s cross.

Right-winger Nzingoula had troubled Saints on a couple of occasions before he jinked inside Stephens in the box, inviting the skipper to dangle a leg and Nzingoula to go down under minimal contact.

Up stepped Price to score in emphatic fashion, sending Peretz the wrong way to find the top corner with an unstoppable spot-kick.

Finn Azaz tries to create against the club where he spent 11 years as a youngster

Saints tried to respond to the setback, but Mubama cut an isolated figure as Kuryu Matsuki’s first-time pass found the Manchester City loanee offside.

Things might have got worse before half time when Price brought down a long ball forward in an instant before his shot whistled just past the post with Peretz rooted to the spot.

The only saving grace for Saints was that there was still just one goal in the game at the interval, and the visitors came out with renewed vigour after the break.

Ryan Manning produced a teasing cross and Matsuki won a corner before the pair combined to deadly effect eight minutes into the second period.

Another Manning cross from the left was kept alive by Matsuki with a towering leap at the far post, nodding the ball back across goal for Edozie to gleefully slam home from six yards.

But just as Saints would have wanted to press home their newfound momentum, Albion responded with a double chance of their own.

It would take a crucial piece of defending from James Bree to prevent a tap-in from an inviting low cross, before Stephens was in the right place to block Morgan’s fierce shot inside a crowded penalty area.

Stephens made another important clearance from a Callum Styles shot as the home fans roared their team forward.

Edozie strikes to level the scores eight minutes into the second half

Now that Saints had joined the party this had become all-action stuff, as the visitors responded with half-chances for Bree and Finn Azaz, who did not spot Mubama waiting for a tap-in as the midfielder went for goal with his left foot.

Eckert made his first substitution as the game entered its final 20 minutes, as Dobbin replaced Mubama up front.

When Azaz did look to pick out a teammate from a low ball, his deflected cross required an emergency intervention from Baggies goalkeeper O’Leary, who stretched out a foot to keep Saints at bay.

O’Leary nearly went from hero to zero when his pass was picked off by Downes on the edge of the West Brom box, but the midfielder unselfishly tried to find Dobbin rather than go for goal himself, and a golden chance passed him by.

Dobbin would not have long to wait for a massive opportunity of his own. With 10 minutes to play, Azaz’s trademark piercing through ball sent the substitute one on one with the keeper, but O’Leary stood tall to make a vital save with his legs.

At the other end, Peretz was alert to keep out Aune Heggebø’s cute flick at his near post, before Tammer Bany grazed the upright, but both sides would have to settle for a share of the spoils.

West Bromwich Albion: O’Leary, Pereira, Mepham, Campbell (c) (Phillips 46), Styles, Price, Diakité, Molumby, Nzingoula (Whitwell 71), Horn Myhre (Heggebø 71), Morgan (Bany 84).

Subs not used: Ingram, Townsend, Crowther, Parmar, Stewart.

Goal: Price (22’ pen).

Booked: Styles, Nzingoula.

Southampton: Peretz, Bree, Stephens (c), Schlotterbeck, Manning, Ward-Prowse, Downes, Matsuki (Fellows 88), Azaz, Edozie, Mubama (Dobbin 71).

Subs not used: Long, Wood, Abbott, Welington, Bragg, Williams, Ehibhatiomhan.

Goal: Edozie (53’).

Booked: Downes.

Referee: Josh Smith.