Andy Carroll scored a late equaliser to deny the Swans a deserved win over Newcastle at the Liberty

It was a late cruel blow for the Swans after they had dominated the bulk of the match against their higher profile opponents who had barely threatened the Dorus De Vries goal all afternoon.

In front of the watching Sky cameras the Swans gave more than a good account for themselves as they took the game to Newcastle from the opening minute and deservedly led through David Cotterill's excellent strike in the second half.

There had been talk before the game of a lack of media coverage in this part of South Wales and early morning Sky Sports News reports of the "diehard" Newcastle fans getting up at 3am to travel highlighted the difference in coverage especially when you consider almost double the number of Swansea fans made the opposite journey back in November.

But today should make the media sit up as the Swans were by far the better team and with expensive luxuries such as Kevin Nolan and Alan Smith looking like part-time players opposite Darren Pratley and Joe Allen you have a good indication of how the game went.

The Swans sent out what was their strongest line up available on the day lining up as follows

Dorus

Tate     Monk     Williams     Bessone

Dyer     Allen     Orlandi     Pratley     Cotterill

Kuqi

There was though an early blow for the Swans as Fede pulled what looked like  a hamstring early on and had to be replaced by Rangel as the Swans made a quick but relatively easy shuffle of their personnel.

That was the only downside though of the first half as the Swans pressed at every opportunity.  Pratley, Allen and Orlandi gave pretty much nothing away in midfield and even when they did they chased it down and got it back relatively quickly to keep the visitors under pressure and Dyer and Cotterill were constant threats to the opposition defence.

Three corners inside the first two minutes says much about the early part of the play although Harper in the visiting goal was relatively quiet although he would have been relieved to see Orlandi's free kick whistle past the post after Alan Smith went through the back of Darren Pratley (of course for no booking...!)

Garry Monk and Ashley Williams were the rocks at the back that we have become accustomed to as the Swans pushed and pushed but were frustrated by a well organised Newcastle defence who kept the first half score to goalless.

That changed soon after the interval when Cotterill struck from the edge of the area with a well placed curling shot past Harper to bring the Liberty to it's feet and give the Swans the lead.    It spurred Newcastle into action but not with an expected comeback but whinging at every single tackle put in by the Swans who seemed to have the audacity not to bow down in front of Newcastle and their expensive array of "stars"

Some strong - but very fair tackles - ensued with Lovenkrands in particular guilty of falling over at every opportunity and usually holding his face in a poor attempt to try and win free kicks.  By this time as well Cotterill was ripping the Newcastle defence to pieces with some very telling runs and was unlucky not to be part of a second Swans goal on more than one occasion.

Newcastle were pushing more men forward but getting nowhere through it as the defence looked as if it would hold strong.    Ten minutes from time it looked as well as if the Swans should have been given a man advantage when Carroll led with the elbow against Garry Monk but the referee decided otherwise and showed a yellow card for the challenge.

And they paid the ultimate price for that decision five minutes later when Carroll rose to head home at the back post to give the visitors a point that they simply did not deserve.

But it remains nine unbeaten for the Swans and up a place to 4th as they look to keep going what is becoming more and more a strong promotion dream.

Onwards, upwards and onto Plymouth on Tuesday.

Photo: Action Images

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