DANNY GRAHAM ENDED an 11-month goal drought and returned to haunt his former club Swansea.
Graham opened the scoring but Hull were held to a 1-1 draw in tonight’s Premier League fixture at the Liberty Stadium.
A second-half equaliser from Chico Flores 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.”
Michael Laudrup, Swansea’s manager, added: “In the second half we did much better and got the equaliser, but after such a bad first half we didn’t deserve to win today.”
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.
Tom Huddlestone wasted a golden chance to double Hull’s lead when he sliced over from 12 yards, and Swansea made the most of that escape as they grabbed a fortuitous equaliser on the hour.
A Swansea short corner routine ended with Jonjo Shelvey whipping over a cross and, with Hull’s defenders reacting too slowly, the ball hit Flores and looped into the net.
Hull were twice left to rue the officials’ decisions as they appealed in vain for a penalty when Dwight Tiendalli’s arm made contact with the ball following a Huddlestone corner, while David Meyler had the ball in the net only to see his effort ruled out for offside.
