Hughton Defends His Eight-Man Defence!

Last updated : 14 February 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

The Magpies sat back, at times with EIGHT players in a defensive wall, and dug in for a point.

Even when we fell a goal dehind he didn't switch formation until the 66th minute when he brought on Leon Best, and finally ... after 70 minutes ... we had our first shot on target.

The Swansea boss Paulo Sousa admitted: "Newcastle are the best team in the Championship, but we outplayed them. They sat back and we went for them."

Chris Hughton: "Credit to our players for pushing it at the end as it was either going to be an equaliser for us or Swansea scoring another.

"We knew they were in very good form here and they play a very brave system that is difficult to play against.

"They have a lot of possession, but, generally, this means they usually can't get two men into the box and we did have good periods in the game because they were never able to hurt us at the back.

"The last week has shown us that this is a very tough division and you have to ride with the highs and lows and perhaps nick points when you are up against it.

"Swansea are definitely a team I expect to be challenging right up there at the end of the season."