Nervy Newcastle Held on Home Soil by Struggling Swansea
Newcastle's sorry record against Swansea has continued after the Magpies were held to a 1-1 draw by the relegation threatened side.
Rafael Benitez's side had to come from behind as Joselu canceled out Jordan Ayew's opener, and the result means that the north east outfit have only won two of the past 10 meetings.
Swansea will be peeved not to have held on to their lead, but the Premier League's bottom club are still in with a shout of staying up with the credible result at St. James' Park.
Mo Diame and Dwight Gayle both sent chances wide of the upright as the hosts started the contest in confident fashion - the latter in particular guilty of nodding a glorious opportunity the wrong side of the right hand post.
Christian Atsu, who caused Mike van der Hoorn all kinds of problems down the hosts' left flank in the first 45, saw his cross soon after agonizingly blazed over by Paul Dummett.
Swansea, meanwhile, had only an Oliver McBurnie stabbed effort well over the bar to show for their efforts and it almost showed when Ayoze Perez nearly broke the deadlock.
Matt Ritchie found the advancing forward with a ball over the top but Perez, one-on-one with Lukasz Fabianski, saw his tame shot parried by the goalkeeper.
Jonjo Shelvey watched a free kick fly into the stands from a promising position before Swansea appeals for a penalty were given short shrift after Diame appeared to nudge the ball with his arm at a corner.
Gayle thought he had finally opened the scoring eight minute before the interval, but the officials ruled his close range finish out for offside.
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Gayle drove a left foot shot wide after Swansea were almost architects of their own downfall again, and the Magpies' wasteful nature was then punished on the hour.
Van der Hoorn's inviting cross was bulleted goalwards by Ayew and, after Karl Darlow had done well to parry his initial effort, the Ghanaian reacted quickest to head home the rebound past the Newcastle keeper.
It took just eight minutes for Newcastle to level proceedings. Shelvey's raking pass was set upon by Perez and, after his wayward cross was picked up by Joselu, the Spaniard's shot back across goal nestled into the far right hand corner.
Both teams went for the winner as the game ebbed and flowed - Wilfried Bony going closest when DeAndre Yedlin cleared his attempt off the line in the final minute - but neither could land the decisive punch to secure a massive three points for their respective aims.
