Huddersfield Town's impressive start to their inaugural Premier League campaign continued with a scoreless draw against Southampton at the John Smith's Stadium.
After back-to-back wins over Crystal Palace and Newcastle United, this encounter was a litmus test of Town's top-flight credibility which the side encouragingly passed.
Of course, a win would have been the perfect result but the fact David Wagner's men dominated for large periods will leave the German more than satisfied going into next week's international break.
And ahead of the game it was little surprise the head coach kept faith with the side which impressed in the win over Newcastle the previous Sunday.
It meant there was no room for new signings attacking midfielder Abdelhamid Sabiri and full-back Florent Hadergjonaj with Tommy Smith captaining the side, Tom Ince starting through the middle and Rajiv van La Parra on the left.
Jonathan Hogg (ankle), Martin Cranie (hip flexor), Nahki Wells (ankle) and Jon Gorenc Stanković (knee) were also still unavailable through injury.
Played in front of a boisterous Bank Holiday crowd, it was a frenetic start to the game but despite the early momentum it was the visitors who should have opened the scoring in the 11th minute.
Saints captain Steven Davis found himself in acres of space and expertly put Nathan Redmond through one-on-one with Town stopper Jonas Lossl - only for his low effort to curl wide of the far post.
And despite the end-to-end opening, Town had to wait until the 18th minute for their first real chance of the game but when it did arrive the decibels inside the stadium raised another seemingly impossible notch.
A Rajiv van La Parra ball into the box sent the Saints defence into disarray and, with the goal at his mercy, Elias Kachunga was denied by a last-ditch block from Maya Yoshida before keeper Fraser Forster foiled Steve Mounié seconds later.
The home side had the bit between their teeth and a quick break from a Southampton corner saw Lossl release Kachunga, and after escaping his marker, the forward found van La Parra in the box but this time Davis was on hand to deny the Dutchman with an excellent recovery tackle.
Town continued to dominate the rest of the first-half but were unable to find a way through a stubborn Saints defence marshaled by the impressive Forster in goal.
First he denied Ince's first time strike from a Mathias Zanka long ball with a finger-tip save before recovering well to deny Kachunga with his feet after appearing stranded on the deck.
The second-half began as a more low-key affair and, with the intensity dropping a little, Wagner introduced the tenacious duo of Kasey Palmer and Danny Williams to liven up proceedings.
The introduction of Palmer into the 'Number 10' role saw Ince move into the left wing position vacated by the substituted van La Parra and he was soon causing havoc.
Minutes after the switch his teasing ball across the face of goal saw it inches away from Mounie's boot while Yoshida was then forced to make two superb blocks from Kachunga and Aaron Mooy after his initial strike had Saints’ defence sprawling.
The final ten minutes became a ragged affair and with space opening up across the pitch it was Southampton who could have grabbed all three points.
Substitute Shane Long held the ball up well to bring Nathan Redmond into the game but the winger’s curling effort from the edge of the box was superbly denied by Lossl in the Town goal.
Then, as the game entered stoppage time, captain Smith was forced to hook the ball off the line as Ryan Bertrand's header seemed destined for the back of the net.
In the end it was honours even with Huddersfield Town arguably the more disappointed of the two sides – a testament of how well David Wagner's side have already acclimatised to Premier League life.
