Bony breaks QPR's hearts

London - Wilfried Bony bade Swansea City a goal-scoring farewell by coming off the bench to earn his side a 1-1 Premier League draw at Queens Park Rangers on Thursday.

The Ivory Coast international, who is due to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations, rose from the bench to net a stoppage-time equaliser after Leroy Fer had put Harry Redknapp's QPR in front with a sweet first-half strike.

Garry Monk's Swansea, who had Wayne Routledge sent off in the latter stages, remain in ninth place, seven points below the top four, while QPR fell one place to 16th, but stay two points above the relegation zone.

QPR were fortunate to avoid being reduced to 10 men inside five minutes when goalkeeper Rob Green rushed out of his box and appeared to thwart Routledge with his hand, only for referee Anthony Taylor to wave play on.

Dutch midfielder Fer made the breakthrough in the 20th minute, gathering a headed clearance on his chest, taking a touch, and lashing a vicious shot inside the left-hand post from 20 yards.

Bafetimbi Gomis, deputising for Bony, squandered several openings to equalise for Swansea and QPR finished the first half on top, with Lukasz Fabianski parrying from Mauricio Isla and Eduardo Vargas hitting the post.

In-form QPR striker Charlie Austin also struck the post with a header five minutes into the second half, but Swansea began to threaten.

Gylfi Sigurdsson crossed for Federico Fernandez to head over and then curled a shot fractionally wide himself, while Routledge and Angel Rangel shot wide.

Bony, the Premier League's leading scorer in 2014 with 20 goals, replaced Sigurdsson with 19 minutes remaining and immediately went close to an equaliser, forcing Green to claw away his free-kick.

After Gomis headed wide, the recalled Vargas served a reminder of QPR's threat on the counter-attack with a shot that hit the side-netting.

Routledge was then sent off for retaliating after Karl Henry went in hard on him, but against the odds, the 10 men equalised.

Ki Sung-yueng was the creator, skipping to the edge of the box and finding Bony, who turned in one fluid movement before lofting a fine finish into the roof of the net.

There was still time for QPR to force a winner and Austin somehow skewed a shot wide with practically the last kick of the game.