West Brom vs Swansea match report: Salomon Rondon scores vital injury time equaliser for Baggies

West Bromwich Albion 1 Swansea City 1

(Getty Images)

West Bromwich Albion scraped a point in stoppage time after Gylfi Sigurdsson’s goal appeared to have secured a third straight win for Swansea since Francesco Guidolin arrived as interim head coach.

Swansea led after 64 minutes as Albion’s lack of firepower threatened to see them draw a third consecutive blank but Salomon Rondon forced home an equaliser after Darren Fletcher’s shot had been blocked on the line by goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Despite his two-goal return in the FA Cup last weekend, there was no place for Saido Berahino in Albion’s starting line-up, the 22-year-old reverting to his now regular place on the bench. The explanation this time was fitness rather than the distraction of the transfer window, which ended with the unsettled striker still an Albion player despite interest from Tottenham Hotspur, Stoke City and Newcastle United. He suffered a dead leg in the 2-2 draw with Peterborough and has not trained fully in the meantime.

Gylfi Sigurdsson thought he had won the game (Getty Images)

Berahino, denied a move in the last two transfer windows, is now seeking a meeting with chairman Jeremy Peace to discuss his future.

They can seldom have needed his goals more than now. Having not mustered a shot on target in either of their last two Premier League matches, they deployed Fletcher as their second striker here, the former Manchester United midfielder, with two goals in 40 starts for Albion, playing just off Salomon Rondon. In the event, his early header from a Craig Dawson cross, tipped over the bar by Lukasz Fabianski, was as close as they came to a first-half goal.

Swansea’s best effort in reply was a dipping long-range effort by Gylfi Sigurdsson, pushed over by a back-peddling Ben Foster, before the opening half ended with saves at both ends. New Swansea signing Alberto Paloschi, introduced after 45 minutes following a head injury to Ki Sung-yueng, almost scored with his first touch, blocked by Foster after Wayne Routledge put the £8 million Italian through on goal. Then Stéphane Sessègnon tested Fabianski with a free-kick whipped in right-footed from the left side after Fletcher had been fouled.

Paloschi was a willing runner and Swansea quickly sought him as an outlet but it was Albion who should have gone ahead 10 minutes after the restart, when James McClean delivered a superb cross from the left that Fletcher could only head over the bar, after which Pulis, egged on by the home crowd, introduced Berahino.

They were less enamoured with his decision to take off Sessègnon, who had been as bright as any Albion player to that point. To make matters worse, Swansea then went ahead.

Again Paloschi was involved, seeking to turn and shoot as Leon Britton played the ball in. Gareth McAuley managed a block-tackle, but the ball ran to Sigurdsson, who drilled his shot wide of Foster and into the corner of the net from around 10 yards out. The Iceland international had appeared to have given Swansea victory, only for Rondon’s injury-time equaliser.