Sam Allardyce hailed his West Ham United side after they picked up another welcome Barclays Premier League point on the road by drawing 1-1 at Southampton.
The Hammers came from behind to get a positive result away from home for the first time this season, with Andy Carroll's free-kick cancelling out Gaston Ramirez's opener after a goalless first half.
Carroll fired home a low free-kick with 24 minutes remaining, cancelling out Uruguay international Ramirez's 59th-minute opener - a goal which occurred after the midfielder's first effort had been blocked by James Tomkins.
As they had done at Stoke City and Liverpool in recent weeks, West Ham produced an organised, resilient and determined display and Big Sam felt they were good value for their share of the spoils. When the defence was breached, Jussi Jaaskelainen continued his outstanding form by making fantastic saves to deny Rickie Lambert and substitute Jay Rodriguez either side of half-time.
"I'd have been bitterly disappointed if we'd lost this game after the way we played and the chances we created because we really did nullify Southampton and restrict them to very few chances indeed," said the manager, who also saw Carroll flash a shot inches wide, Ricardo Vaz Te shoot narrowly over and Kevin Nolan's goalbound effort hit a Southampton defender.
"The goal that they did score was extremely lucky on the rebound when it fell straight to Ramirez's feet. Before that, we missed too many good chances to go 1-0 up but, in the end, Andy Carroll came up with a free-kick. He has driven it into the corner left-footed and shown more of his all-round ability.
"He got us back in the game and we were looking to try and win it and I thought we might have done that on occasions, but unfortunately we didn't. Being as Southampton have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea at home in their previous two home games, this is a big point to us."
For the second weekend in succession, West Ham worked their collective socks off to stifle a side famed for their slick passing and elusive movement. Just as they did at Anfield, the Hammers closed down every bit of space and restricted their usually free-flowing hosts to a half-chances.
Even Ramirez's opener had a large slice of luck about it as his initial shot hit Tomkins and rolled back into his path before the Saints No10 rifled an unstoppable shot past Jaaskelainen. Earlier, the Finn had produced a miraculous stop to push Lambert's close-range strike onto the base of the post.
"That's exactly what it's all about away from home. You cannot be open and expansive because teams in the form that Southampton are in - and they've shown what they can do against the big boys - will punish you. Chelsea and Liverpool have come here and opened themselves up and been beaten quite comfortably.
"We didn't open ourselves up. We made it nice and tight and solid and then we broke when we could on the counter-attack with good, speedy moves and created some really good chances to score. Unfortunately, we failed to do so until we got the free-kick."
The manager was delighted to see Carroll bag his fifth goal in seven matches for the Hammers, and also to see Jaaskelainen continue his formidable form between the sticks.
"It was a pity Andy missed the Liverpool game because he was really flying [after two goals against West Bromwich Albion] and he is still flying now," said Big Sam. "Goals make centre forwards so much more confident and putting that one in the back of the net, particularly after he missed a sitter at the start of the second half, has really pleased me and really pleased him.
"The one big chance they had in the game, Jussi has pulled out a really good save. How he has got it around the post is quite remarkable. It's a very close one and he's got down and put the right hand on it and squirmed it around the post. That was the only real clear-cut chance Southampton had and it was obviously a great save from Jussi."
One sour note was the sight of seeing James Tomkins hobbling off with an injury late on. With Winston Reid and George McCartney also side-lined, Big Sam may have to reshuffle his in-form defence for the visitors of Manchester United on Wednesday evening.
"He's limped off so it doesn't look very clever for Wednesday, does it?" said the manager. "Had we got a full week and no game this week, it would have been easier to get him fit for the next game, but it's a bit of a problem.
"James, Winston and George being out leaves me a little thin defensively for Wednesday but we'll wait and see and assess it and see what we can do.
"Whatever team we have got available, I'm sure they will go out and enjoy playing against Manchester United."