Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Late Liberty lament

Swansea 1 - 0 Newcastle Utd

A scrappy goal by Swans substitute Luke Moore was enough to condemn us to defeat in South Wales on Saturday, as our progress towards mid-table safety hit a buffer.

With Sideshow Bob ruled out with the back injury picked up last week, MYM was handed his first Premier League start for the club in an otherwise unchanged line-up.

For our players, it was a case of “Here’s what you could have won” as the teams ran past Swansea’s latest addition to their trophy cabinet before the match, with Dreamboat taking on the mantle of captain (probably in a foretaste of next season if Sideshow Bob does depart over the summer).

Despite hoping to catch the home side resting on their trophy-laden laurels, it was Newcastle who seemed a little slow out of the traps, allowing the home team too much time and space for much of the first half – with Saylor at times seemingly a modern reincarnation of Horatius single-handedly holding back the attacking forces, and on one such occasion hacking the ball clear from the goal line.

At half-time, though, we regrouped and began to press Swansea’s play, forcing them into mistakes, and with our greater physicality we took control of the midfield and with it the game.

The force now with us, Papiss Cisse fired over when well placed, Dreamboat saw a fierce dipping shot smash off the bar and Moussa Sissoko saw Michel Vorm tip his long range drive wide. As the game wore on, it looked a case of when, rather than if, we would get a winner, as the home side desperately hung on.

Gallingly, though, the breakthrough came against the run of play, with MYM and Davide Santon both challenging for a header and the ball breaking loose in our box. Saylor flung himself in front of it but the ball fell to Luke Moore, who stabbed it goalwards, possibly off the boot of the challenging Dreamboat, and it bobbled its way past Rob Elliot to give Swansea a somewhat undeserved winner.

The Silver Fox flung on Big Lad and Sylvain Marveaux at the death, but to no avail, and results elsewhere saw us drop a couple of places down the table.

Attention now turns to Anzhi on Thursday night, when we’ll need to be at our battling best if we’re to continue to harbour hopes of further progress in the Europa League.

Other reports: BBC, Guardian

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another Geordie wearing rose tinted glasses. I have no idea what game you watched but not the same as the rest of the nation. Your description of the first half was underwhelmed, however the second half you got more in our faces and had 2 decent chances followed by a few long range efforts that looked impressive but caused no danger. The overall possession was 61% to Swansea and we made 425 more passes than you. Our pass accuracy was 94% whilst yours was 87%. So although there is an argument to share the spoils I don’t see how anyone could argue you deserved 3 points.

2:33 pm  
Blogger Paul said...

Hi anonymous and welcome to our blog.

I don't really see why it should surprise you that when writing the report on a Newcastle Utd blog, I was wearing black and white tinted glasses, but if you want a more neutral perspective you may want to look elsewhere.

I believe my description of the first half, and in particular the part where I compare Steven Taylor to Hereclus suggests that it was very much Swansea dominated.

In the second half, we can agree that we looked more impressive and presumably that we were on top before you scored.

If you could point me to the sentence in which I argue we deserved all three points, I'll gladly reconsider it.

All I can see is a suggestion that we looked like we were going to get a winner, not that we necessarily deserved it on the balance of the whole match.

Happy to be corrected once you've removed your white tinted glasses and re-read the post.

4:58 pm  

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