Welsh veteran Allen popped up on the six-yard box to head home an equaliser that earned Swansea another late point nearly a week after Myles Peart-Harris had struck an added-time winner in the 2-1 victory over Luton in their previous home game.
Today it had looked like the Baggies would be taking all three points from the Championship lunchtime kick-off. Substitute Tom Fellows’ strike hitting the back of the net midway through the second half for the managerless play-off chasing visitors.
Allen though would have other ideas burying Ronald’s cross as Williams’ men would gain an unlikely equaliser which would thrill the former Notts County boss.
“Against a really top side, I think we competed well,” said Williams in his post-match conference.
“I think we deserved a draw. I don’t think there was a huge amount in the game either way. Both teams looked very tired, but I think we were value for a point.
“Liam [Cullen] has played a lot of minutes and he was starting to look tired, the pitch is heavy, and he’d just started to lose his energy, and Joey Allen is a special player.
“Some players are a full-back or a winger or a midfielder, and some are just footballers. Joe Allen is just a footballer. He knows how to handle himself in all different scenarios. He can understand things at a very high level.
“Joe scoring a header might be a bit unusual, but you know that whatever situation you put him in he is going to apply himself.
“He is brave enough to try and do everything, and I think that if you look at the move for the goal, his touch in the middle of the pitch when it is really tight is so smooth. He rolls the ball out the other side and that starts the build-up to the goal.
“It’s hard to say how great we think it is, and we are fortunate to have him.
“We had two really special performances here [wins against QPR and Luton] that we’d almost forgotten about because of a really heavy defeat [against Portsmouth].
“That’s taken our memory away from those two performances and I now hope that we can reflect back with this bit of a break and think ‘we’ve done well in that period of time’ and look forward to the rest of the season now.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
