Match Reports

Report – Swansea City 1-1 Newcastle United

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Image for Report – Swansea City 1-1 Newcastle United

Swansea City were harshly denied a deserved win at home to Newcastle United by an 87th-minute equaliser from Andy Carroll.

Paulo Sousa’s side dominated the entire match against the former Premiership club and proved why they’re one of the best footballing sides in the division in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

For a team looking for a winning response after their 3-0 defeat at Derby County on Tuesday night, plus a side who are competing for the Championship, they were far from impressive and lacked any ideas and inspiration going forward. Garry Monk and Ashley Williams had a comfortable afternoon in the centre of defence.

Paulo Sousa, as expected, made changes again to his starting line-up, and he continues to rotate his team. David Cotterill and Joe Allen returned after they were rested at Crystal Palace, and Andrea Orlandi kept his place as Leon Britton was out injured.

The Swans got into their stride from kick off, playing neat passing football on the deck as Newcastle United chased shadows for most of the first half. Kevin Nolan had the visitor’s best chance, but he saw a free header 8 yards out go wide of the post.

Young Joe Allen helped to dictate our play, while Darren Pratley and Nathan Dyer were linking up well down the right to create our biggest threat on the attack.

Our first decent opportunity on goal came via a free-kick 25 yards out. David Cotterill was fouled from behind by former Manchester United midfielder Alan Smith, and Andrea Orlandi stepped up to curl a free-kick over the wall but just a yard wide of the post.

Swansea City went into the break by far the happiest of the two sides, as their confident and dominant performance made Newcastle United look like just an average Championship outfit – hardly one that was aiming for an instant return to the top flight.

We started the second half in similar fashion to the first, and we got the goal that our dominance deserved 11 minutes after the restart. Darren Pratley played a ball out wide to the left, Dyer dummied, leaving it run to David Cotterill who cut inside, beat his marker before finding the space to curl home a sublime shot from just outside the box – rooting goalkeeper Harper to the spot.

We then had chances to double our lead and kill the game off. Nathan Dyer shot at goal from 30 yards or more but it flew just few yards wide of the post, and Ashley Williams headed well over the bar from close range.

Newcastle United then saw more of the ball in the last 20 minutes than they did in the previous 70, as they went in search for an equaliser. The Magpies upped the pressure a little but nothing more than our defence could handle, yet you still had the feeling that we needed a second to guarantee the three points. Our biggest and best chance of doing that came to substitute Gorka Pintado, but he completely missed Rangel’s pass from just 8 yards out.

We were cruelly punished just 3 minutes from time for not taking our chances as Andy Carroll found the net with only their second decent chance and we gifted it to them really. We lost possession in midfield, our passing game, which had been top notch the entire game suddenly slipped and the ball was played out wide to substitute Best. Alan Tate didn’t close him down, and gave him the time and space to set a deep cross to Andy Carroll who rose well to head home from close range, as goalkeeper Dorus De Vries had no chance of stopping from point blank raise.

The late equaliser was hard to take as the scoreline was far from a fair reflection of how it panned out. Despite of that though, it was another superb performance and our ability to outperform and outclass a side full of multi-millionaire players just goes to show how far we’ve and how far we can go under Paulo Sousa.

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