Swansea City vs West Bromwich Albion; Sky Bet Championship
Swansea City vs West Bromwich Albion. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance14,729.
Swansea City 1-1 West Bromwich Albion: Joe Allen nets stoppage-time equaliser for Swans
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion at the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday; Joe Allen strikes late to earn point for Luke Williams Swans against the managerless Baggies.
Saturday 4 January 2025 16:05, UK
Joe Allen snatched a point for Swansea in the 93rd minute as he headed home the equaliser to earn his side an unlikely share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw against West Brom.
Allen had been introduced in the 80th minute as Swansea boss Luke Williams sought some inspiration after seeing his side fall behind. Tom Fellows had come off the bench for the Baggies to take the lead in the 67th minute of a tight, end to end contest.
Allen struck after a deep cross from the left by Matt Grimes had reached Ronald and the Brazilian's volleyed cross was buried by the veteran Welsh international with his first goal since March 2024.
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West Brom arrived seeking their first win in Swansea since November 2018 - a game in which interim manager Chris Brunt played - and looking to build on their 3-1 win over Preston last time out.
They had won the corresponding fixture at the Hawthorns 1-0 thanks to a Jayson Molumby and the midfielder, who announced earlier in the week he had signed a contract extension, was well to the fore in a first half that ebbed and flowed as both sides wrestled for the ball.
The Baggies, six points ahead of the Swans in sixth place, had been linked with Swansea City boss Luke Williams, although he ruled himself out of the race to replace Carlos Corberan in a forthright statement in the build up to the game.
Ousmane Diakite picked up a yellow card for the visitors after only 46 seconds for throwing the ball away at a free kick. Josh Maja, who had scored twice in the win over Preston, got off the game's first shot in the third minute before Swansea came closest to the opening goal.
A corner was met by Josh Key and his header was stopped on the line as Cyrus Christie and Liam Cullen followed up. West Brom kept forging ahead and the running of Maja and Karlan Grant caused more and more problems for the home defence.
Harry Darling had to dive in twice in his penalty area to stop an attack in the 25th minute and then home keeper Lawrence Vigouroux pulled off two full length dives to push shots from Grant and then Mikey Johnston away for corners.
The Baggies continue to press forward in the second half and when Molumby pinched the ball off a Swansea player in the centre circle in the 67th minute he drove forward deep into the home half. As he reached the box he laid off the ball to Fellows, who smashed he ball home with his left foot past Vigouroux at the base of his left post.
Fellows had another shot that whistled just over the bar in the 80th minute, while the Swans offered very little until Allen's key moment in the penultimate minute of added time.
The managers
Swansea's Luke Williams:
"I think we deserved a draw because I don't think there was a huge amount in the game either way. Both teams looked very tired but I think we were value for a point.
"Liam Cullen has played a lot of minutes and he was starting to look tired and the pitch was heavy. He'd just started to lose his energy and that's why I brought on Joey Allen, who is a special player.
"Some players are a full-back or a winger or a midfielder and some are just footballers. Joe Allen is just a footballer - he knows how to handle himself in all different scenarios."
West Brom's caretaker boss Chris Brunt:
"There are good draws and bad draws and that's probably a bad draw for us. Everyone is gutted in the changing room.
"There were a few tired bodies out there and unfortunately we just couldn't deal with that last ball into our box.
"We've played five games in the last 14 days and we have asked the players to go to their limits and it has been difficult for everyone involved.
"On the whole I don't think we deserved that. We created a lot of opportunities, asked questions of them throughout the game but let ourselves down in the final third.
"We started a little bit slower than them in the first 15 minutes and they put us under a bit of pressure but once we got to grips with the game everything we had spoken about went well.
"On another day we might have picked the right option and scored a couple more goals. We felt quite comfortable at 1-0 but when you don't get a second goal to kill it off anything like that is possible.
"We had defended that scenario well all game and that was the one time someone got in between our lads in the box and Joe Allen is an experienced guy and finished it well. It half feels like a defeat but we've had a difficult period of games."