Swansea City completed a league double over Newcastle for the first time as they scrapped to a 1-0 win at the Liberty. Luke Moore came off the bench to score the crucial goal with only 5 minutes to go to move the Swans into the top eight.
Following their emphatic victory in the Capital One Cup final Swansea boss Michael Laudrup made two changes from the team that started at Wembley. Gerhard Tremmel was back on the bench after his cup exploits and Michel Vorm started hoping for a better day then at Anfield two weeks ago. Club captain Garry Monk stepped up to replace makeshift centre back Ki Sung Yeung as the Swans continued with their three winged attack with Routledge, Hernandez, and cup final man of match Nathan Dyer continuing to support Michu.
Newcastle could have been ahead within three minutes as Cisse nearly punished a poor pass from Garry Monk but couldn`t connect with Sissoko`s cross.
Spanish connections were at the forefront for Swansea`s first chance as a terrific piece of skill from Pablo Hernandez took him past Debuchy, his cross eventually found Angel Rangel who had two chances to feed Michu and the prolific striker headed well over at the second attempt.
Set pieces have been well documented as Swansea`s main weakness but the breakthrough was very nearly broken from the home side`s first free-kick. Jonathan de Guzman`s floated delivery was knocked past Elliot by Michu and Williams looked destined to score but Steven Taylor got back to clear off the line as Newcastle survived.
Following his two goals at Wembley Dyer was involved again has a lovely flowing counter attack set up De Guzman whose long range effort was spilled by Elliot but cleared by Taylor again.
Alan Pardew`s men came to Swansea having won three of their last four Premier League games but were starved of chances in the first twenty minutes but Gouffran tried to feed Cisse but Williams was in the way to block the cross.
As the half wore on the Europa League competitors started to grow into the match and denying Swansea as much of the ball as they would have liked and looking to take advantage of their distinct strength and height advantage but Williams and Monk were standing firm.
Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye were flying their tackles in and both ended up in the book after hefty challenges on Britton and Dyer respectively.
From the free kick given away by Cabaye, Monk should have done better with his header which harmlessly flew over the Newcastle crossbar.
A bright start to the half led to a quiet end but a decent opening period for the hosts ended all level at half time.Just over a minute into the second half and Swansea should have been in front as Hernandez slipped through Rangel, Elliot managed to palm the ball away but had to be alert to keep out Routledge`s follow up.
Cisse was Swansea`s tormentor last season as his two goals secured a victory for the Magpies but today wasn`t his day as he was played through with the aid of a deflection and his volley didn`t rouble Vorm.
Just seconds later and Gouffran should have opened the scoring for the visitors ahead as Sissoko crossed from the byline and from 13 yards out the former Bordeaux striker fired well over.
His influence during this match was nowhere near his Wembley performance, it was a hard working performance from Nathan Dyer but he was replaced by Ki Sung Yeung who very nearly made an instant impact as his goalbound header was cleared for a corner.
Apathetic tendencies were creeping into the Swansea game and they were nearly punished as a thunderbolt from Cabaye was acrobatically tipped onto the bar by Vorm.
A response was needed and Hernandez provided it as he linked up well with Routledge to wina corner that was cleared by Cabaye.
The revelation that is Ben Davies kept the pressure on as he tried to pressure Elliot who scuffed his clearance but De Guzman couldn`t connect with the rebound properly. From this Newcastle broke and Vorm had to be alert to keep out another pile driver from Cabaye.
Having played in central defence at Wembley Ki looked to give Swansea another boost as he was put through by Hernandez, despite losing his footing he still got a shot away which Elliot had to palm behind.
The last time Swansea beat Newcastle in South Wales was 33 years ago en route to promotion to the old Division One and that record looked set to continue as the match entered the final ten minutes.
However with five minutes to go Wayne Routledge produced a cross that should have been cleared but Luke Moore somehow found the ball at his feet and a clever touch took it away from the Newcastle defence and via a touch off the goalkeeper nestled the ball into the back of the net to send the fans inside the Liberty into orbit after having to endure a frustrating second half.
The Swans move up to seventh after Chelsea beat West Brom and no matter the result between Wigan and Liverpool the worst Michael Laudrup`s side will be is eighth.
Star Man: Pablo Hernandez: No goal for the tricky winger but his quick feet and vision was invaluable and could have had a couple of assists to his name but for poor finishing from others.
Thanks to Matthew Thomas for his match report. You can access his blog at http://matththomas66.wordpress.com/ and follow him on Twitter @mcthomas2905
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