Cisse salvages point for Pardew
Papiss Cisse eased some of the pressure on under-fire Newcastle manager Alan Pardew as his second brace of the season secured a precious Barclays Premier League point as the Magpies drew 2-2 at Swansea.
Cisse was starting for the first time on Saturday since fracturing a patella in April and he repeated his two-goal show against Hull last month when he came on as a substitute to stun Garry Monk's side.
Swansea twice took the lead through Wilfried Bony and Wayne Routledge, but the Senegal striker took advantage of some slack home marking to score Newcastle's first away goals in the top flight since March 1.
The Newcastle fans voiced their displeasure at both Pardew and owner Mike Ashley - who was present at the Liberty Stadium - regularly during an entertaining contest, with the visitors desperately short of confidence and still seeking their first win of the league campaign.
Swansea had made their best start to a Premier League campaign but they had gone three games without a win and it showed as both sides took time to settle.
An early spell of shadow boxing ended when Gabriel Obertan fired just wide and the chance seemed to spur Swansea into action at the other end.
Bony played Ki Sung-yueng's pass to Gylfi Sigurdsson and a simple one-two saw the Ivorian bear down on goal and slot home pass Tim Krul for his first goal since scoring for the Ivory Coast at the World Cup in Brazil.
It was also Sigurdsson's fifth assist of a productive Premier League season but from a Newcastle perspective their defence had been breached far too easily.
Shelvey's delicate chip cleared Krul's crossbar following some slick Swans approach play and the hosts almost doubled their advantage after 38 minutes.
Another free-flowing move had threatened to break down but Sigurdsson helped it onto Nathan Dyer and he beat his marker Paul Dummett with ease.
Dyer's cross found Bony but Krul produced an excellent save to divert his volley wide at the expense of a corner.
Newcastle had barely functioned as an attacking force but two minutes before half-time Obertan got the better of Neil Taylor and Cisse stole across Ashley Williams at the near post to beat Lukasz Fabianski in the Swansea goal.
Swansea responded immediately with Bony seeing a shot blocked by his skipper Williams before driving a fierce effort over, but Newcastle's luck held only until five minutes into the second half.
Sigurdsson held off Moussa Sissoko, perhaps too forcefully for Pardew's liking, to slip a pass into Routledge's path with Dummett playing him onside in the left-back position.
Krul came rushing off his line but Routledge nonchalantly beat him with a delightful chip to restore Swansea's lead.
Newcastle were making little attacking headway and came close to conceding a third when Sigurdsson's back heel found Bony and the Ivorian just failed to keep his chip under Krul's bar.
Bony was almost on the scoresheet again when he met Dyer's centre sweetly and Krul pulled a save from right out of the top drawer.
And that stop proved more important moments later when substitute Sammy Ameobi evaded the challenge of Federico Fernandez and crossed for Cisse to volley home from close range.
Cisse almost completed his hat-trick with 10 minutes remaining when Emmanuel Riviere's blocked shot fell to him inside the six-yard area but he couldn't maintain his balance and the chance was lost.
Source: PA
