When it comes to making headlines for the right and wrong reasons – something of a speciality in the Newcastle dressing room in recent years – Andy Carroll is up there among the best of them. Five days after being charged with assault following a December altercation in a Tyneside nightclub, the England Under-21 striker came to United's rescue with a goal that come May could prove priceless.

Devoid of ideas and having failed to muster so much as a shot at the Swansea goal during the entire second half, Newcastle were three minutes away from their second defeat of the week when Carroll rose majestically at the far post to head home Leon Best's deep cross from the right flank. The goal was harsh in the extreme on Swansea, the better side throughout, as victory would have reduced the gap between them and those setting the pace at the Championship's summit. Carroll's goal ensured that Newcastle's lead over the chasing pack remains intact.

To add insult to injury there was a feeling among Swansea's players that Carroll should not have been on the field at the time of Newcastle's equaliser, after the striker's somewhat clumsy aerial challenge on Garry Monk in the 83rd minute was deemed worthy of a yellow card rather than a straight red. "I've seen it on the video and it is an elbow," Paulo Sousa, the Swansea manager, said.

Carroll maintained that he had tried to win the ball "honestly" but was clearly relieved that such a difficult week had ended on a high note. "I've had better ones, yeah, and the team had a little dip at Derby, but I think we can push on from this," Carroll said with a nod to Newcastle's 3-0 defeat at Pride Park last Tuesday. "We needed the three points, really, but we'll take the one after the performance that Swansea put in. They played really well and dominated the game. I just thought that it wasn't going to be our day, the way they kept the ball so well."

Carroll was right. Swansea did keep the ball exceptionally well. However, a failure to make the most of several decent chances proved to be City's undoing, the prince among them being Gorka Pintado's air shot with the goal at his mercy, having been cleverly set up by Angel Rangel. Mind you, the one they did convert was a bit special. Nathan Dyer dummied Darren Pratley's cross-field ball in the 56th minute, allowing it to find David Cotterill, who cut inside before finding the net with a missile from just outside the penalty area.

"It's a great goal and we also had other opportunities to score more but didn't take them," Sousa said. "That's football. Sometimes it's unfair. Today, it was a lot, because we were the much better side in everything. We deserved today to win by miles. But we are getting stronger all the time. If we win every game until the end, we can finish very high."