WEST BROMWICH: Salomon Rondon netted his first Premier League goal since October in injury time to earn West Brom a 1-1 draw against Swansea at The Hawthorns on Tuesday.
Swansea were set fair to grab the points after Gylfi Sigurdsson put the visitors into a 64th-minute lead.
But as West Brom fans began to head for the exits Rondon saved the day to leave West Brom in 13th, eight points above the relegation zone. Swansea are 16th, five points clear of danger.
Sigurdsson was on the mark in last weekend’s 2-1 win at Everton in new coach Francesco Guidolin’s first match in charge.
And the Italian named an unchanged side with Alberto Paloschi, who joined from Chievo on Friday for £8 million, on the bench.
West Brom boss Tony Pulis gave a debut to Sandro, the midfielder from QPR one of five changes from the side that drew with Peterborough United in the FA Cup.
Midfielder Darren Fletcher returned after knee injury and the game was only minutes old when he connected with a cross from Craig Dawson, but Swansea keeper Lukasz Fabianski tipped his header over the bar.
On 20 minutes Swansea’s Ki Sung-yeung produced a massive clearance only for Angel Rangel to shoot wide.
Shortly after, on the counter attack Andre Ayew had a shot deflected wide.
Sigurdsson then had a dipping volley edged over by West Brom keeper Ben Foster.
Down at the other end Dawson was guilty of missing a gilt-edged header.
A clash of heads just before the interval left Sung-yeung awake but stretchered off to applause from the crowd. Swansea later tweeted the South Korean was “ok, just a little concussed.”
On came Paloschi and the Italian almost made a dream start when he ran onto Wayne Routledge’s through ball only for the on-rushing Foster to block the shot.
Swansea broke the deadlock with a well worked move just after the hour involving Leon Britton and Paloschi, with Sigurdsson slickly shooting into the bottom far corner from 12 yards out.
Good late work from Fabianski kept West Brom at bay until the second minute of stoppage time, when after a scrappy corner Rondon popped up to level for the Venezuelan’s fifth goal of the season.--AFP