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Swansea City (a) Premier League
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Date: Saturday 2nd March 2013, 3pm Venue: Liberty Stadium Conditions: sunny intervals Admission: £35 (£35 in 2011/12) Programme: £3 |
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Swansea City |
Newcastle United |
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1 - 0 |
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| Half time: | 0 - 0 | |
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| Score Sheet: | ||
 (85)
Moore |
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Teams |
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Vorm Rangel Williams Monk Davies Hernandez Britton Routledge de Guzman Michu Dyer |
Elliot Debuchy S.Taylor Yanga-Mbiwa Santon Cabaye Tiote Gutierrez Sissoko Gouffran Cisse |
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| Substitutes: | ||
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(60)
Sung Yeung for Dyer |
Sh.Ameobi for
Gutierrez (90) Marveaux for Tiote (90) |
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| Subs not used: | ||
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Tremmel |
Alnwick Anita Perch Haidara Obertan |
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| Bookings: | ||
| None |
Cabaye
 Tiote |
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| Dismissals: | ||
| None |
None
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Referee:
Craig Pawson - South Yorkshire-based
whistler who we believe is making his debut in the top-flight. He had
warmed up for this one by overseeing Hartlepool's 2-1 victory at
Scunthorpe in League One on Saturday.
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Attendance:
20,405 including 1,000 Newcastle supporters, who were in good voice throughout. One new addition to the repertoire was a new ditty devoted to our right back, with the darts crowd anthem (aka Chase The Sun by Planet Funk) appropriated, ending in the word Debuchy! Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias were both in attendance. |
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Goals |
Half time: Swans 0 Magpies 0
85 mins Magpies
old boy Wayne Routledge took possession down the Swansea left and checked back
inside Debuchy before floating over a cross. Both Davide Santon and Yanga-Mbiwa
jumped for the ball and it looked to deflect off the former and into the path of
Luke Moore.
The substitute had been on the pitch for less than ten minutes managed to shoot
beyond Elliot from seven yards despite a lung from Steven Taylor (a team mate at
Wycombe Wanderers almost a decade earlier) and via a deflection from Cabaye -
almost an apology for a goal. 1-0
Full time: Swans 1 Magpies 0
We Said |
Alan Pardew
said:
"To
come here and play as well as we did, to boss Swansea at home in the
second-half ... there are not many teams can do that. Swansea are a good
team. They wouldn’t have won the League Cup and be having this season
unless they had some great players. They are a good unit and are a
well-educated side.
"We did really well today.
It is absolutely galling that we didn’t get anything. We are absolutely
disappointed and frustrated that we didn’t even get a draw because we more
than deserved that.
"We sat off them a bit, for 20 minutes in the first half, and you know
they will cause you problems. We put that right at half-time.
"Watching from the sidelines, you could see they had settled for a
draw. They knew they were doing well to stay in it, I honestly thought that.
But when we didn’t score in that great period we had, you do start to
think that any mistake we made would be costly, and that’s what happened.
"The mistake for the goal was quantified by the fact we missed two or
three great chances. You can’t do that at this level, I’m afraid.
We lost a sloppy goal. It’s just a ball in the box and we have four
defenders there. It should have been better dealt with, but unfortunately it
wasn’t. That cost us.”
They Said |
Michael Laudrup:
"There was a lot to be pleased about today. Firstly the win
and secondly our attitude. I spoke in the week about the fact you
sometimes see a negative reaction after a big win, but our reaction was an
excellent first half where we showed lots of good touches, movement off
the ball, and we created chances.
“We went in at 0-0 but we deserved so much more. After that, Newcastle came into the game and had some very good chances but, like us, they did not score when they were at their best and so that late goal decided the game.
“It shows our maturity, sometimes
with smaller teams when they do well and get recognition from the media
you see a reaction in the game after. You can forget every game starts
0-0. I expected what I saw today, but I still had to say it as when you
win a cup a negative reaction is normal.
“It is good for Luke (Moore) to come in and score in a very
important game. He has helped us to reach 40 points a week after the cup
win and it has made this a really great week. He has been out of the side
for several weeks but when we have rotated the squad we have tended to do
well.”
Stats |
Magpies @ Swans -all time: 2012/13 lost 0-1 Swansea City came into this game on the back of their Capital One Cup victory, after beating Bradford City 5-0 at Wembley the previous Sunday. That made them the 32nd British club to have enjoyed major domestic cup success since Newcastle claimed the FA Cup in 1955: 15: Liverpool (8LC/7FA) 13: Manchester United (4LC/9FA) 11: Chelsea (4LC/7FA) 10: Tottenham (4LC/6FA) 9: Arsenal (2LC/7FA) 6: Aston Villa (5LC/FA) 5: Manchester City (2LC/3FA), Nottingham Forest (4LC/FA), 3: Everton (3FA), Leicester City (3LC), West Ham (3FA), Wolves (2LC/FA), 2 Birmingham City (2LC), Norwich City (2LC), WBA (LC/FA), Leeds United (LC/FA) 1: Blackburn Rovers (LC), Bolton Wanderers (FA), Coventry City (FA), Ipswich Town (FA), Luton Town (LC), Middlesbrough (LC), Oxford United (LC), Portsmouth (FA), QPR (LC), Sheffield Wednesday (LC), Southampton (FA), Stoke City (LC), mackems (FA), Swansea City (LC), Swindon Town (LC), Wimbledon (FA), Just three other current Premier League sides have failed to lift the League Cup or FA Cup since our last success; Wigan, Reading and Fulham. Of course, us Geordies with our "unrealistic expectations" have the audacity to think that we should feature somewhere in the above list.... |
Waffle |
Another outing for our apparently-cursed change kit saw Newcastle slip to their first-ever defeat at the Liberty Stadium - although only the maroon-clad Magpies will know how just they failed to find the net at least once on Saturday afternoon at a sunny Swansea.
Breaking their trophy duck the previous weekend was a momentous achievement for the Swans, but not necessarily a bad thing for The Magpies, as they sought to prevent Michael Laudrup's men from completing a seasonal win double.
Certainly the Swans looked below-par in the opening exchanges as we sought to take a stranglehold on the game in the manner that led to our last away success at Aston Villa. However, they failed to achieve that level of domination in a disjointed first half, with Rob Elliot kept far busier than Michel Vorm. Steven Taylor was forced into a vital goal line clearance from Michu and his central defensive partner Mapou Yanga M'Biwa tested as City threatened on several other occasions
The former Montpellier captain was the only alteration to the starting XI from the Southampton victory, with Fabricio Coloccini missing with back trouble and fitness issues again delaying the long-heralded return of Hatem Ben Arfa.
Handling his first top-flight fixture, Craig Pawson incurred the wrath of the travelling support by booking both Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote when similar challenges by the opposition went unpunished. And the rookie referee also did himself no favours by indulging Swansea's amateur dramatic act every time a semblance of contact with an opponent took place.
A double stop by Elliot in the opening stages of the second half proved to be a rare upfield excursion for City, as Newcastle upped their game and began to dominate the crucial midfield areas. Before the hour mark, Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran, Moussa Sissoko and Papiss Cisse had all missed the target from good positions and a Newcastle goal looked inevitable as Vorm tipped a Cabaye effort on to his crossbar before pawing away a goal bound effort from Sissoko.
Resisting the temptation to alter what looked like a winning line-up for far longer than he'd done previously as Newcastle boss, Alan Pardew watched his side continue to dominate possession and City looked grateful to escape with a point as the prospect of a 0-0 stalemate looked inevitable.
However there was to be a sting in the tail, with Swans substitute Luke Moore bringing another vital block from Taylor in the closing stages before the ex Aston Villa forward almost apologetically found the net.
That triggered the manager into action and he threw on Shola Ameobi and Sylvain Marveaux as the 90 minute mark ticked by. Hardly surprisingly though, that failed to provoke an instant response and Swansea played out three minutes of added time with something to spare, before a disheartened United side trooped off after acknowledging their backing from the away section.
In defeat one often learns more than in victory and after tinkering with his teams via substitutions on a regular basis to our frustration, it would be unfair to criticise Pardew for sticking his with first XI until the late panic caused by going behind.
Again though, it's hard to understand quite what he's seeing in terms of contribution from Gutierrez and Santon's defensive work remains decidedly shaky. Realistically, the remaining ten league games are a learning curve for the manager as he attempts to blend his resources into an effective unit, ahead of further personnel changes in the summer. Days like this are part of that process.
Leaving here in the knowledge that we'd enjoyed a greater proportion of the play than when winning here 2:0 last season was no more than cold comfort though - as was the certainty that points will come from worse performances than this. Onwards to Moscow then, that's a novel line to end on.
Biffa