Premier League: Sunderland 2 West Brom 2

Sunderland came from two goals behind to draw 2-2 with West Brom at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

The Baggies got off to the best possible start with Shane Long and James Morrison scoring within the first five minutes for the visitors.

But Nicklas Bendtner and Ahmed Elmohamady had replied for Steve Bruce’s side within 20 minutes, and neither side could find the net again as the points were shared.

West Brom opened the scoring in the fourth minute through Morrison, who peeled off his marker and headed Chris Brunt’s free-kick past Simon Mignolet in the Sunderland goal.

Roy Hodgson’s side made it two a minute later when Long raced onto a hopeful ball over the Sunderland defence and slid his shot under Mignolet.

The Sunderland defence was all over the place and were caught out very easily by the ball over the top with Michael Turner being in particularly poor in his first game since April for Steve Bruce’s side.

Long and Peter Odemwingie were taking full advantage of this and could have made it three or four if not for a last ditch challenge by Wes Brown and a decent stop by Mignolet.

The West Brom strikers were made to pay for these missed opportunities as the Black Cats got a goal back through Bendtner.

After a great move down the right, Seb Larsson found the Dane in space with a back heel, and his deflected shot flew over Ben Foster into the net.

This gave Sunderland and the crowd a boost, and they got their equaliser in the 26th minute through Elmohamady when he headed home Larsson’s cross after beating Shorey in the air.

Sunderland could have taken the lead through late chances in the half from Stephane Sessegnon, Bendtner and Craig Gardner, but they were unable to beat Foster.

The hosts came out in the second half like they ended the first and could have gone ahead through Wes Brown, but the defender headed into the ground and over the bar when unmarked at the back-post from a Larsson free-kick.

Steve Bruce’s side continued to threaten as they played some lovely football, and were almost unrecognizable from the team which played the first five minutes of the game.

West Brom were reduced to playing on the counter-attack as Sunderland dominated possession, but this tactic nearly paid off as Long went close scoring against the run of play after getting the better of Turner.

Sessegnon kept pulling the strings for the Black Cats but they were unable to find that final ball to create a clear cut chance to find the winner they deserved.

The Baggies piled on late pressure in the hope of snatching all three points but Sunderland were kept them out to hold onto a point.