Swansea vs Newcastle match report: Papiss Cisse’s double for a point ‘will lift us’ says Alan Pardew
Swansea 2 Newcastle 2: Visitors trail twice but striker converts their only chances as Swansea go four games without win
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Newcastle striker Papiss Cisse kept Alan Pardew in a job for at least another couple of weeks, despite the hatred of the travelling fans.
Twice the Magpies trailed, fuelling the groundswell of opposition against the manager and club owner Mike Ashley. Yet for the second time in a fortnight Cisse struck twice, the first a touch of class and the second an instinctive finish, to claim a point and, more tellingly, save his manager’s job.
Newcastle remain without a win from their first seven games and Pardew may not hang on much longer but at least there were signs of commitment. Their players – and manager – are refusing to give up without a fight even in the face of a relentless tirade from the fans. The only surprise was that it took a full 12 minutes for the taunts to ring out. But the collective sigh of relief at the final whistle could surely be heard back in the North-east.
Pardew said: “We know there was a lot of tension in the stands and that’s not going away in the short-term. There was also a lot of tension on the field in the way we played but this performance will lift the players.
“We showed so much character and real fight in our bellies. We were determined to win right to the end. As a manager you analyse whether the team is giving you everything and even our worst critic couldn’t argue they’re not. We would like to have more flair and confidence but we have to grind things out.
“We can use the break to analyse things but we need to get our season going and I’m just looking to the next game.”
The arrival of Sammy Ameobi off the bench was crucial in finding the second equaliser, though goalkeeper Tim Krul was just as key, twice superbly denying Wilfried Bony.
Bony put Swansea ahead with his first of the season and Wayne Routledge looked set to haunt Pardew, the man who sold him to Swansea, with his goal. But Swansea’s Achilles heel for the past 12 months has been their failure to kill-off opponents and a habit of switching off.
Manager Garry Monk said: “We’re disappointed because that was two points dropped. We were dominant but at times it was too easy for us to keep possession and we lost concentration. Both goals we conceded were soft but we should have won that game by a couple of goals.”
Cheick Tiote and Moussa Sissoko disrupted Swansea’s rhythm but Newcastle lacked guile or finesse. Players ran down dead ends or straight at white jerseys. Ashley Williams proved a considerable barrier.
In contrast Swansea were dangerous on the counter-attack and just 30 seconds after Daryl Janmaat went close, they were a goal up.
Janmaat fired across goal, Swansea swept upfield and it took just two passes to play a way through three defenders before Bony finished to Krul’s left. It has been a slow start to a second-term in English football for the Ivorian striker who looked set for a move in the summer after 25 goals last season.
The response from the terraces was inevitable but taunts that Pardew would be “sacked in the morning” proved premature. Newcastle struggled to cope with Sigurdsson and it took an impressive save by Krul to deny Bony following the Iceland midfielder’s pin-point delivery.
Yet it was proving too comfortable for Swansea who switched off before half-time and Newcastle levelled.
Gabriel Obertan rounded Neil Taylor and Cisse beat Williams and Lukasz Fabianksi from a tight angle with a wonderful flick the outside of his boot. Sigurdsson again tormented Newcastle to tee up Routledge early in the second half. But Ameobi turned the tide, skipping past Federico Fernandez to deliver a cross that was poked in by Cisse on 74 minutes to set-up a thrilling climax.
Line-ups:
Swansea (4-3-3): Fabianski; Taylor, Williams, Fernandez, Richards; Sigurdsson (Emnes, 85), Ki, Shelvey; Routledge, Bony, Dyer (Montero, 85).
Newcastle (4-1-4-1): Krul; Dummett, Coloccini, Williamson, Janmaat; Tiote; Gouffran (Ameobi, 58), Colback (Riviere, 69), Sissoko, Obertan; Cisse (Perez Gutierrez, 85).
Referee: Lee Mason.
Man of the match: Cisse (Newcastle)
Match rating: 6/10
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