Express & Star

Alan Pardew encouraged by Salomon Rondon and Jay Rodriguez's confidence in difficult circumstances

Alan Pardew reckons his team is gathering momentum after their 1-1 draw at Everton and says his strikers are growing in confidence.

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Jay Rodriguez celebrates scoring his third goal in five games. (AMA)

Jay Rodriguez scored his third goal in five games today while Salomon Rondon put in a man of the match performance at Goodison Park.

Pardew was especially pleased both forwards played well under difficult circumstances.

Rodriguez has an FA investigation hanging over him following allegations of racism made by Brighton full-back Gaetan Bong and Rondon accidentally broke James McCarthy's leg in today's game.

Rondon, who inadvertently kicked the back of the Everton midfielder's leg, was distraught during the game and had to be consoled on the pitch by Pardew.

He bounced back and smacked the crossbar deep in injury time and the front two's resilient performances are pleasing the Albion head coach.

"I'm seeing enough at the top of the pitch to be encouraged," said Pardew. "Rondon was terrific today in everything he did.

"It was such a shame that incident, midway through the second half, poor James has hurt his leg and it affected Salomon for a little while.

"But once we got his head right, he just went back to how he was playing. He was terrific.

"We were all discussing on the sideline whether he would be able to continue, he was really distraught but we managed to claw him back a little bit.

"I've been on the pitch myself and if you hear a break that don't sound right it does affect you. As tough as he is, he's a big soft guy and it affected him. I think he's ok now, he looked ok."

Rodriguez opened the scoring eight minutes in with a tidy finish that rounded off a glorious Baggies move.

It comes seven days after the allegations made by Bong.

"Obviously in terms of that I don't want to comment, but I kept my eye on him this week," said Pardew. "He was focused very much on his training and I thought mentally he handled the week well considering.

"It was a strong performance and defensively did a good job as well because he had to get on the back of Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson and Rooney as well when he came on, and I thought he did well.

"Jay's got great pedigree. He had that injury that kept him out for a year or so.

"I think he's finding his feet, it's about confidence for strikers. I thought you saw in our two strikers today, their confidence returning. They were a handful for Everton."

The Baggies are now three games unbeaten in all competitions, and have only lost one of their last six matches.

That defeat was away at West Ham, when fatigue eventually took its toll, and Pardew is pleased with how his side is progressing.

"It wasn't two points dropped but the feeling in the dressing room is one of disappointment," he said. "That's a good feeling to have really.

"To come here and considering all the talent Everton had on that pitch, we restricted them to very few chances.

"I thought we were terrific out of possession, we could have been a little bit better in possession at times, and controlled the game a little bit more but we had enough chances on the break, in transition, to take all three.

"It keeps the momentum, it's good to see us pushing at the end to try and win it, which is not easy coming here.

"I think you're seeing a team functioning ok really. We've proved that for a while now, six or seven games.

"We were very unlucky at West Ham, one or two of these games we could have had three points.

"Hopefully, the signs suggest we're looking ok. We just need to keep winning our home games and pick up points away from home."

Another Baggies player who caught the eye at Goodison was Grzegorz Krychowiak.

It was his outrageous ball with the outside of his boot that set up Rodriguez's goal and the Polish midfielder was bursting forward dangerously throughout.

"I thought he was great today and he made a great effort second half," said Pardew. "That hit produced a great save from Pickford and the rebound could have been kinder.

"He played well today in a midfield that had big talent in there."