Nat Phillips’ 93rd-minute own goal helped Leicester rescue a point from a 1-1 draw with West Brom at The Hawthorns.
On his full debut, Aston Villa loanee Samuel Iling-Junior had put the Baggies in front with a magnificent solo effort after 10 minutes.
But shortly after Josh Maja’s incredible miss from inside the six-yard box, Bobby Decordova-Reid’s shot hit Phillips’ shin and nestled in the back of the net to silence The Hawthorns.
Ryan Mason likes his West Brom side to dominate the ball, but it became clear early on that their chances to do so would be limited. Even so, after a bright Leicester start, it was the hosts who found the opener with their first attack.
Aune Heggebo’s deft touch set up Iling-Junior, who showed tremendous balance and poise to ride the challenge of Wout Faes and roll a shot into the bottom right corner, despite being flanked by Luke Thomas and Boubakary Soumare.
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West Brom take a 1-0 lead over Leicester in their Championship clash thanks to a superb solo run from Samuel Iling-Junior.
Leicester found it difficult to test an organised Baggies defence, who doubled up on Abdul Fatawu on the right. They went direct from time to time, but the change of approach could not change the fact they ended the first half without a shot on target.
They found more space to operate in after the break, but were wasteful with it. Jannik Vestergaard’s header straight at Josh Griffiths proved to be their only shot on target, with Ricardo Pereira, Harry Winks and Julian Carranza each lifting efforts from range harmlessly over the bar.
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Josh Maja misses a golden chance from inside the six-yard box for West Brom, as minutes later Bobby De Cordova-Reid helps Leicester to rescue a point in stoppage-time.
Maja had the chance to put the result beyond doubt for the hosts when he followed up a free-kick that was parried by Jakub Stolarczyk, but he blazed over when it looked easier to score – and the miss proved costly just a few minutes later, when Phillips’ unfortunate touch hit the back of the net.
Mason: West Brom need collective mindset to be killers
West Brom head coach Ryan Mason speaking to Sky Sports:
“I thought we played a really good game and in the second half, we created some really good chances. But that’s football. If you don’t kill the game, you don’t take the opportunities you earn, 1-0 is a dangerous scoreline.
“It’s the second home game in a row we’ve only conceded one shot on target and we’ve come away with one point, so I’m bitterly disappointed. I thought the performance deserved so much more.
“It’s not about individuals, it’s more about a collective mindset to be killers. As a team, we need to punish them; we need to kill the game off. We created enough chances and enough moments.
“The nature in which the goal goes in is disappointing as well because it’s not something where they’ve opened us up. It’s something we have to accept, we have to move on from, we have to improve on a lot.”
Cifuentes: We need to be better in final third, but we are building
Leicester manager Marti Cifuentes speaking to Sky Sports:
“It’s a game with different moments for both teams. I definitely felt we had a very strong first half and unfortunately we were chasing a result. We need to be better in the last third, on putting that dominance into chances, into goals, but I still felt the team did a lot of good things.
“In the second half, the closer we got to the end, the more we chased the result, the more emotional it was. In an open situation, at the end, we were chasing what we wanted, to get at least one point from this game.
“There is plenty of quality in the squad, it is just that we are building something and it sometimes takes time to play against good teams as well and credit to West Brom, they defended really well.”
