Mexican international striker Carlos Vela grabbed relegation-threatened West Brom another point with another late goal here on Monday as they drew 1-1 with Stoke City in their Premier League clash.
Mexican international striker Carlos Vela grabbed relegation-threatened West Brom another point with another late goal here on Monday as they drew 1-1 with Stoke City in their Premier League clash.
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Vela - on loan from Arsenal - had only been on the pitch two minutes before he made his mark just as he did in the 1-1 draw with fellow strugglers Wolves over a week ago.
Irishman Rory Delap had put Stoke 1-0 up early in the second-half in a match that got significantly better as it went on.
The point saw West Brom - who have kept just one clean sheet this term and have garnered only 14 points from their last 19 matches - move out of the bottom three to fourth bottom, a point clear of Wolves who occupy the first relegation place.
Nothing much of note occurred in the first-half as Stoke's habit of using their physical force prevented their more stylish opponents from expressing themselves in fluent fashion.
The visitors did test opposing goalkeeper Amir Begovic's alertness twice but it took over half an hour for them to achieve that as the Bosnian twice went down to save from former Celtic misfit Marc Antoine Fortune after good work by Graham Dorrans and Jerome Thomas.
Stoke showed little going forward save a rasping effort in the 42nd minute by Jermaine Pennant, whose shot scraped the woodwork.
However, that changed in the second-half as the hosts showed a more ambitious side to their play and were rewarded in the 52nd minute as Delap rose unmarked to head past Scott Carson.
Begovic, though, came to Stoke's rescue seven minutes later as he produced a save out of the top drawer to deny Dorrans, whose header from Steven Reid's corner took a huge deflection off Ryan Shawcross.
West Brom did finally beat Begovic in the 69th minute but Fortune's header from the enterprising Reid's cross clipped the bar - that was to be Fortune's last contribution as he was replaced by leading scorer Nigerian international Peter Odemwingie.
However, it was to be Vela who rescued another point for the visitors as he swooped onto Reid's cross and from close range slotted the ball past Begovic.
Begovic, though, once again came to Stoke's rescue and prevented West Brom fromn taking all the points as he saved smartly from Vela twice with his legs in time added on.
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