Danny Graham finally ended his 11-month goal drought as the Hull striker returned to haunt his former club in a 1-1 draw against Swansea on Monday.
Graham enjoyed a prolific 18-month spell with Swansea before moving to Sunderland for ￡5 million (US$8.23 million) in January and then onto Hull on loan in August.
The 28-year-old has struggled at both Sunderland and Hull, but he produced a fine strike early in the first half at the Liberty Stadium to put his name on the scoresheet for the first time since he netted for Swansea in a League Cup win at Chelsea in January.
However, Graham’s first goal for Hull was not enough to secure the points, as Swansea defender Chico Flores equalized in the second half.
The result left both sides in mid-table, with 10th placed Swansea one point above their opponents.
“Certainly it’s been a long-time coming,” Graham said of a 30-game drought that lasted 1,626 minutes. “I wanted to go crazy when I scored, but I had a good relationship with the Swansea fans and had good times down here, so I wasn’t going to celebrate.”
“In the second half we did much better and got the equalizer, but after such a bad first half, we didn’t deserve to win today,” Swansea manager Michael Laudrup said.
Swansea forward Michu was back in the team after five weeks out with an ankle injury, but it took Graham just nine minutes to show his old employers the sort of predatory finishing he produced on a regular basis during his time in south Wales.
Swansea defender Ashley Williams contributed to his side’s downfall with a careless pass to Ahmed Elmohamady. Elmohamady raced down the right flank before whipping over a cross to the far post, where Graham had found space to guide a left-foot volley past Gerhard Tremmel from close-range.
Graham could have been forgiven for embarking on a jubilant celebration after ending his long drought, but instead he showed his respect for Swansea by putting his hands in the air in a gesture of apology.
Williams had an opportunity to atone for his earlier blunder when Jonathan De Guzman’s corner dropped to him in the Hull penalty area, but he dragged his shot well wide.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
RSS