Late Magpies Misery.

A match report from NUFC.com

Late Magpies misery, as Swans wing it.

Swansea City 1 Newcastle 0.

Newcastle suffered defeat at the Liberty Stadium after Luke Moore broke Magpie hearts with an 85th minute winner for the home side at a sunny Swansea on Saturday afternoon.

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 Magpie players will know how they failed to find the net at least once.

Breaking their trophy duck at Wembley the previous weekend was a momentous achievement for the Swans, but not necessarily a bad thing for United, as they sought to prevent Michael Laudrup's men from completing a win double for the season.

Certainly the home side looked below-par in the opening exchanges as Newcastle sought to take a stranglehold on the game in the manner that had produced our last away success at Aston Villa.

However they failed to achieve that level of domination in a slightly disjointed first half, with Steven Taylor forced to make a vital goal line clearance from Michu and his central defensive partner Mapou Yanga-M'Biwa put to work as Swansea threatened on several other occasions.

The former Montpellier captain was the only change 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 save by Rob 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, Moussaka Sissoko and Papiss Cisse had all missed the target from good positions and a Newcastle goal looked inevitable as home 'keeper Michel Vorm tipped a Cabaye effort on to his crossbar before pawing away a goal bound rocket from Sissoko.

Resisting the temptation to alter what looked like a winning lineup, Alan Pardew watched as his side continued to dominate possession and City looked grateful to escape with a point from the contest as the prospect of a 0:0 stalemate at full time looked ever more likely.

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 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 M'Biwa jumped for the ball and it looked to deflect off the former and into the path of Luke Moore, who managed to shoot beyond Elliot from seven yards despite the attentions of the lunging Taylor and possibly via a deflection from Cabaye - almost an apology for a goal.

The last gasp arrival of Shola Ameobi and Sylvain Marveaux from the bench failed to provoke and instant response and Swansea played out three minutes of added time with something to spare, before a disheartened United side trooped off after acknowledging the strong vocal support from the 1,000 travelling fans.

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 - as was the certainty that points will come from worse performances than this.

Team: Elliot, Debuchy, S.Taylor, Yanga-Mbiwa, Santon, Gouffran, Cabaye, Sissoko, Tiote (Marveaux 90), Gutierrez (Sh.Ameobi 90), Cisse.
Subs n/u: Alnwick, Anita, Perch, Haidara, Obertan.

Booked: Tiote, Cabaye.

Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Williams, Monk, Davies, Hernandez (Tiendalli 88), Britton (Moore 76), Routledge, de Guzman, Dyer (Sung Yeung 60)
Subs n/u: Tremmel, Bartley, Lamah, Shechter.

Goal: Moore 85.

Crowd: 20,405

Alan Pardew said:

"We are frustrated and disappointed we did not even get a draw as we more than deserved that.

"We sat off them for the first 20 minutes of the first half but we sorted that at half-time. In the second half I thought they had settled for a draw, they knew they were doing well to stay in it.

"But when we did not score in that great period we had you know any mistake can be costly and that is what happened.

"We missed two or three big chances and you cannot do that at this level. The goal was sloppy, it's a ball into the box, we had four defenders there and it should have been dealt with better, unfortunately it wasn't and it cost us."

 

Sadly, not the first time this season either, pity we cannot seem to see games out.

 

We just don't turn up for them sometimes.

 

That result cost me £90 yesterday.

It was my lad's stag day/ night( the second one where we more mature gentlemen were invited to take part...)and I had a simple pot on the pool table to win a game of killer. I was just about to deliver the ' coup de grace ' and win the loot when some sod in the pub shouted out " Swansea have just scored ".........miscued it completely and left it over the pocket for the other fella.

That said by the time he'd got the beers in he was probably out of pocket.....

 

Crafty old bugger, you missed it on purpose so that you didn't have to get the drinks in. We're all wise to you now.

Not a pool player myself but I was in a pub the other night (after the match) and after a few of the black stuff I had a game against the guy that had been on the table for a while (winner stayed on the table and the challenger paid for the game kind of thing) and ended up beating him on the black.

Didn't take his money off him, and let him stay on the table and came home the Champion.

Another feather in my cap.