Newcastle United 2 Swansea City 3: Carver´s men continue worrying slide

Newcastle United’s dismal Premier League form continued as they slumped to a seventh straight defeat with a 3-2 loss to Swansea City.

The game took place amid a backdrop of fan frustration, with some supporters choosing to continue the boycott from last week’s reverse to Tottenham and others electing to ‘stand up to Mike Ashley’ in the 34th minute in protest at the Newcastle owner’s running of the club.

John Carver’s side nevertheless took the lead after 20 minutes as Spanish striker Ayoze Perez capitalised on some haphazard defending from the visitors.

Yet Newcastle failed to build on the goal and allowed Swansea to turn the game on its head, the Welsh club securing a record Premier League points tally of 50 in the process.

Portuguese forward Nelson Oliveira levelled in first-half injury time with his maiden goal in English football, and a confidently taken second from Gylfi Sigurdsson in the 50th minute put Swansea ahead.

Oliveira turned provider to set up Jack Cork for a third from point-blank range, with substitute Siem de Jong’s 87th-minute goal in his first appearance since August proving immaterial as Swansea held on to leave Newcastle just five points above the bottom three. 

Newcastle started the better of the two teams and, after surviving a scare as Ashley Williams headed wide from a corner for Swansea, took the lead thanks to a large slice of fortune.

Emmanuel Riviere – in for Yoan Gouffran as one of two Newcastle changes – beat Angel Rangel for pace down the left and sent a low ball into the box, which Swansea defender Jordi Amat inadvertently turned into the path of Perez to tap into an empty net.

Swansea responded well without creating much of note and interest soon turned to matters off the pitch as the home fans stood up to voice their disapproval at the reign of Ashley, who was once again conspicuous by his absence.

Undeterred by the unrest among the home support, Newcastle pressed for a second, Riviere denied by a brilliant low save down to his left by Lukasz Fabianski after the former Monaco forward had risen highest to meet Vurnon Anita’s left-wing cross at the end of a free-flowing move from Carver’s men.

But right on the stroke of half-time Oliveira capitalised on poor marking from the Newcastle defence to power Sigurdsson’s corner into the net with a header into the ground that left goalkeeper Tim Krul with no chance.

And the visitors completed a turnaround five minutes after the restart, Sigurdsson taking advantage of the space afforded to him in the box by coolly converting Jefferson Montero’s low cross from the left.

Newcastle’s hopes were dealt a further blow on the hour when Ryan Taylor was forced to switch to right-back as Daryl Janmaat limped off injured to be replaced by Mehdi Abeid.

Cork capped off a quick and well-worked Swansea attack in the 71st minute to make it 3-1 and, despite De Jong marking his long-awaited return with his first Premier League goal by turning in Jack Colback’s far-post cross, Newcastle could not rescue a point as they were dragged further into the relegation mire.