Swansea City 1 Newcastle United 1

The Championship game between Swansea City and Newcastle United at Liberty Stadium on Saturday Feb 13 2010.

An 87th minute equaliser from Andy Carroll, the first conceded by Swansea in six and a half hours of football, sent Newcastle United back to the top of the Championship.

The point gained, on the back of their heavy defeat at Derby in midweek, was hardly deserved against a Swansea team which had dominated possession and, in the second half in particular, had all the chances.

An exquisite goal early in that second period, from David Cotterill, looked to have won the match for the Swans but they remain undefeated this year, a run going back 12 games.

The opening half emphasised everything about these two sides. With 33 clean sheets between them, defences dominated with Swansea doing as they have for much of the season, keeping hold of the ball but rarely threatening. Indeed, they had 65 per cent of the ball in the first half but had to rely on set-pieces for their best chances.

At times, the midfield resembled a game of piggy in the middle with Newcastle’s players eventually forced into fouling to give themselves a breather. The problem was that, having won a free-kick in good positions, Swansea wasted them. Andrea Orlandi curled a 20-yarder wide of Stephen Harper’s left hand post and then struck another straight at the Newcastle goalkeeper.

Newcastle simply had to deal with any scraps and they failed to create anything of note until the half four mark when Fabricio Coluccini’s cross found Kevin Nolan eight yards out but his header was poorly directed.

Swansea’s lack of firepower is noticeable and that was typified in the last minute of the first half. Cotterill delivered a good ball inside the Newcastle penalty area but, as was so often the case, none of his team mates were anywhere near.

Going into this game, Paulo Sousa’s team had scored only 13 goals in 16 games at home and the Liberty Stadium had witnessed just 21 goals in total. But there did appear to be more urgency from the home side in the second half.

The 22nd goal nearly came when Nathan Dyer cut inside from the left before shooting across a nervous looking Harper and his posts and he and Darren Pratley then got in each other’s way when Swansea finally did get some players in the opposition’s box.

But all that possession finally counted for something 10 minutes after the restart. Down the right, Pratley stroked the ball to Dyer who dummied delightfully, allowing Cotterill to cut inside and place an excellent shot into the left hand corner for his third goal of the season.

The Swans had a good chance to put the game beyond doubt but, under pressure, Williams headed over from six yards and then substitute Gorka Pintado completely missed his kick with the goal gaping in front of him.

It proved to be a costly miss as, in a rare attack of their own, Wayne Routledge sent in a deep cross from the right and Carroll rose to head in. It was the first goal Swansea had let in a goal at home since Nottingham Forest scored against them on December 12. They return to fourth place in the Championship but missed a wonderful chance to close the gap on the top two.