West Brom 1-1 Leicester City: FLW report as Nat Phillips own goal rescues point for Foxes | OneFootball

FLW reports from The Hawthorns for this all-Midlands clash in the Championship

Leicester City earned a dramatic late point at The Hawthorns against West Bromwich Albion in a hotly-contested Midlands affair.

Marti Cifuentes' men found themselves 1-0 down to Ryan Mason's hosts inside 10 minutes as Aston Villa loanee, Samuel Iling-Junior, marked his first start for the Baggies with a stunning solo effort after evading multiple challenges.

It looked as though the Foxes would endure more woes in front of goal until experienced substitute, Bobby De Cordova-Reid found target as his stunning volley with less than 90 seconds of second-half stoppage time remaining deflected in off Nat Phillips.

A draw has seen Leicester move up to third ahead of Saturday's remaining Championship encounters, whilst West Brom have also returned to the top-six for the time being.

West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Leicester City

The first chance of the game fell to Jordan Ayew inside four minutes. After progressing play down the right flank through Ricardo Pereira and Abdul Fatawu, the Ghanaian striker sprung a high Albion line before dragging his attempt wide of Josh Griffiths' net.

For all their early possession, the visitors were punished after 10 minutes as IIling-Junior was played through by Aune Heggebo just inside Leicester territory, with the summer loanee marking his first start for the club in style as he evaded the challenge of Wout Faes before finding the bottom corner under pressure.

It took Cifuentes' men a 10-minute period to respond to their setback, with some neat play seeing the ball fall at the feet of Jordan James, whose curling effort was deflected wide by Nat Phillips before Harry Winks' had Griffiths scrambling across his goal-line with a volley as the resulting corner was only half-cleared.

On the half-hour mark, Fatawu looked to add to his catalogue of spectacular goals after being given the time and space to drift infield. However, a speculative effort from 20 yards flew straight into the Birmingham Road end. The winger was presented with another opportunity less than a minute later, but couldn't direct his header on target under pressure from Charlie Taylor.

West Brom looked to double their advantage 10 minutes before the break, with the in-form Isaac Price seeing a fizzing effort deflected behind by Luke Thomas, before Jayson Molumby flashed an effort through bodies straight into Jakub Stolarczyk's palms.

The hosts were given a let-off from the resulting Leicester attack though, with Pereira somehow poking Stephy Mavididi's inswinging cross wide of the mark, before their keeper was on hand to keep out a goalbound Heggebo strike at the other end in what was an entertaining last few minutes of the first period.

The final chance of the half came in the final seconds, with Mavididi or Ayew able to turn a teasing Fatawu cross home from close range.

Griffiths made his first save of the night three minutes into the second half as an underwhelming Ayew free-kick was recycled by Winks, with Jannick Vestergaard's close-range header forcing the Albion keeper into action.

West Brom could have put daylight between the two sides on the hour mark as miscommunication from Faes and Ayew allowed George Campbell to fire at goal. However, the USMNT international could only power his shot into the side netting.

A smartly-worked set-piece then came to no avail as the ball was flicked onto Price, with the Northern Ireland international mistiming his connection and spurning a golden chance to make it 2-0.

Winks looked to make the hosts pay for those missed chances with a curling effort from just inside the box, yet he could only direct his strike over the crossbar, before Pereira endured similar frustrations 16 minutes from time.

Albion substitute Josh Maja was denied his first goal of the season eight minutes from time, with the onrushing striker connecting with Mikey Johnston's ball across goal but seeing Faes get every inch of his frame in front of his improvised effort.

Phillips could have sealed the game with his first Hawthorns goal late on, however the centre-back got his connection all wrong despite being left unmarked from a corner.

Baggies supporters couldn't believe the scoreline remained at 1-0 heading into five additional minutes, with Maja somehow blazing over from two yards out after Stolarczyk palmed away a Jed Wallace free-kick, before fellow substitute Toby Collyer dragged his placed effort wide of the left-hand post.

The hosts were left to rue the flurry of missed chances as De Cordova-Redid peeled away at the back post to slam home a stunning volley on the turn — via a heavy Phillips deflection — to rescue a point for the visitors with less than two minutes of added time remaining.

Player Ratings

West Bromwich Albion

Josh Griffiths - 6

George Campbell - 7.5

Nat Phillips - 6.5

Chris Mepham - 6.5

Charlie Taylor - 6.5

Jayson Molumby - 7

Alex Mowatt - 7 (Collyer 89" - N/A)

Samuel Iling-Junior - 7.5 (Styles 72" - 6)

Isaac Price - 6

Mikey Johnston - 6.5 (Wallace 85" - 6)

Aune Heggebo - 7 (Maja 72" - 6)

Unused Subs: Joe Wildsmith, Alfie Gilchrist, Krystian Bielik, Ousmane Diakite, Ollie Bostock

Leicester City

Jakub Stolarczyk - 6

Ricardo Pereira - 6.5 (Daka 81" - 6)

Wout Faes - 6

Jannick Vestergaard - 6.5

Luke Thomas - 6 (De Cordova-Reid 72" - 7)

Harry Winks - 6.5

Boubakary Soumare - 6.5

Abdul Fatawu - 7

Jordan James - 6.5 (Carranza 46" - 5.5)

Stephy Mavididi - 6.5 (Monga 64" - 6.5)

Jordan Ayew - 6 (Kristiansen 72" - 6)

Unused Subs: Asmir Begovic, Caleb Okoli, Hamza Choudhury, Oliver Skipp

West Bromwich Albion vs Leicester City Attendance

The attendance at The Hawthorns for this Friday night game was 24,235.

This included 2,542 supporters who made the trip from Leicester.

Ryan Mason reacts as West Brom suffer late frustration vs Leicester City

Addressing the media post-match, a frustrated Mason said of the encounter: "I don't really think I can, I don't really want to try to sum it up to be honest because it's still so fresh.

"It's tough to accept when you play a game of football like that," he added.

"When you deserve so much more and you don't come away with what you deserve, it's painful. It hurts

"I want everyone inside the club - the players and staff - to be hurting too, because we want to win, we want to know know what it takes to win and we need to strive for more.

"So much good stuff deserved much more, but 1-0's a dangerous scoreline," Mason stated.

"When you create good opportunities and don't put the game to bed, you always run the risk of allowing the opposition back in.

"To concede so late, in the fashion we did, is bitterly disappointing and something we need to work on.

Marti Cifuentes reacts to Leicester City's late show at The Hawthorns

Reacting to his side's late exploits in B71, Cifuentes said: "It's always great to get a late goal.

"I'm happy for Bobby for his goal and to be able to celebrate with our fans at the end. It was very important, emotionally," he claimed.

"Definitely not the result that we wanted," the Spaniard stated. "We played against a good team that defended deep and well At the same time, it was a disappointment to concede the early goal because we started the game really well.

"A strong first half, having control and getting into the last third. Maybe, we missed a little bit in the last third to create more chances, but I felt the team was growing in the first half," he added.

"Unfortunately, through the game, we started to get a bit emotional. We had some turnovers between 70-75 minutes and we started to be more up and down.

"We had to chase the result. The last 10-12 minutes, they had two situations after a free-kick and the counter and it felt like we lost a bit of control.