Peter Odemwingie scored twice for West Brom as they beat struggling Southampton to move up to fourth in the Premier League table.

The Nigerian international scored either side of half time to end a run of two consecutive defeats and maintain the Baggies best start to a season for a decade.

For the Saints it was a fifth successive defeat on the road and need to start picking up points soon if they're to stand any chance of avoiding an immediate return to the Championship.

Nigel Adkins' men started well in the West Midlands with Ricke Lambert having the first clear cut effort on goal, but his low drive was well saved by Ben Foster.

The hosts were slow to get out of the traps but almost snatched the lead through Zoltan Gera in the 20th minute, the Hungarian sticking out a left boot to deflect Odemwingie's goal bound shot over the crossbar from six-yards.

Lambert was then denied by Foster again just past the hour mark after meeting Gaston Ramirez's clipped delivery into the penalty area firmly with his head.

Odemwingie then shot a warning across the away sides bow with a swift counter attack that resulted in the Albion striker firing just wide of the post.

He wasn't to be denied a nine minutes before the break, latching on to Youssouf Mulumbu's pass before beating Paulo Gazzinga with a driven shot that nicked off Maya Yoshida on its way in.

Southampton came close to equalising just after the restart but Lambert could only crash the ball against the bar after Gareth McAuley's poor clearance rebounded into his path.

It proved costly as Odemwingie charged into the box to head home a pinpoint cross from Shane Long after he was found by Liam Ridgewell down the left flank.

And a clean sheet was secured at the death for Steve Clarke's side as Foster rushed off his line to thwart Adam Lallana from notching a consolation goal.