Garry Monk says the Swans should have no fear after almost getting the better of Newcastle
Only a late goal on Saturday could deny Swansea City a victory over their visitors and few could have argued that they wouldn't have deserved it given the play that had gone on for the previous 85 minutes,
Swansea were dominant in the game but the late cruel blow from Carroll denied them the three points they deserved although Swans captain Monk was drawing on the positives from the game.
"I think we're over the stage where we're surprised by ourselves, we're at a stage where we should be competing with these teams and beating them," he told the Evening Post
"We showed that on Saturday in our performance. There was no fear from us.
"We said before the game it's great to be involved in these matches and I said to the boys in the huddle to go and express ourselves.
"We were disappointed with the goal, especially after we'd dominated the whole game.
"We'd limited them to practically nothing and then were hit with a sucker punch, so it's a bitter pill to swallow.
"We can take heart from that performance, but it feels like a loss right now because we should have won the game.
"Football wise we know we can probably better any team in this league — West Brom are probably most similar to us in terms of football.
"We know that on our day we can give anyone a game and it should have been three points — their players were saying the same."
Newcastle's goal was scored by Andy Carroll a man who some would argue did not deserve to be on the pitch after the elbow on Monk a few minutes previous but Monk was not to be committed on the subject when questioned
"He said afterwards that he didn't do it deliberately, but I didn't really see it coming so I couldn't tell," said Monk.
"I'll have to see the incident again on TV because I haven't seen it yet. Obviously he's made contact with me, but I wasn't really facing him.
"It's not a big deal. It's not the first one I've had and it probably won't be the last."