What a peculiar game this can be. And not just because of the strange inevitability that Danny Graham would score his first goal in 11 months against the team for whom he scored his last.

No. Because there’s also that curious ritual of the game whereby it is considered rude, or disrespectful, to enjoy such a moment.

Considering some of the numbers, perhaps Graham could have marked his eighth-minute volley a little differently. Some 30 games had passed since his last strike, in a Capital One Cup game against Chelsea; 1,626 minutes of league football since he scored against Aston Villa in a top-flight game on New Year’s Day

Instead, he raised his hands and frowned a bit. Each to their own. Hull manager Steve Bruce was going mad, waving his arms and looking to the skies.

Then up popped Chico Flores to spoil the fun. His goal in the second half gave Swansea a point they deserved, but rarely looked like achieving. What a topsy-turvy season they are having. What an impact Hull are making.

And yet the omens weren’t particularly good for them coming into this one. They have held their own in the Premier League and remain one of only three teams to beat Liverpool.

But their weakness, just as in their last top-flight campaign four seasons ago, has been their form on the road.

Arriving in south Wales last night, they had a record of one win and six defeats from seven away games. Those are not kind statistics, yet a dream compared to those posted by Graham. Only the most soulless, joyless individual could have begrudged him a little smile when he scored last night. Either way, Graham did not risk it.

Ashley Williams made the mistake that opened the door, playing a weak pass into Ahmed Elmohamady’s path when he was trying to find Pablo Hernandez on the left wing. Hernandez gave chase and fell short with a sliding tackle as Elmohamady crossed to the far post, where Graham volleyed past Gerhard Tremmel.

He opened his palms in a sort of apology after ending his long wait. Ridiculous, really.

And Swansea? They have had their own striking issues. Michu was back last night for the first time in five weeks, but you suspect he wouldn’t have been out there had Wilfried Bony and Alvaro Vazquez not picked up injuries in the past two weeks.

He certainly wasn’t sharp. It was his flick that put Ben Davies in space for a shot in the first half. And it was his head that Swansea targeted with a number of long balls. But on the whole he was lethargic. And so were most of his team-mates for the first half, which is all the more puzzling when you consider the energy of their performance in battering Newcastle 3-0 last Wednesday.

Yet that is their season. Good one game, out of ideas in the next. Here, for the large part, they lacked the wit to convert possession into reasonable chances.

That was painfully obvious late in the first half. Nathan Dyer squared a pass to Jonathan de Guzman, who had team-mates all around. He shot and it cleared the bar by 20 yards. When his corner early in the second half went straight to the first man some of the crowd started getting angry. This is not the form they have got used to.

The Hull end? ‘We’re Hull City, we’ll die when we want’. It was a rather witty retort to the suggestion from their owner, Assem Allam, that they do just that after some opposition to his decision to change the club’s name. But they are showing no signs of dying. True, Hull’s form before last night told that they had lost five of their past seven games. But this team, under Bruce, don’t look like relegation fodder. They certainly didn’t at the Liberty Stadium, even if Flores spoiled the party.

Jonjo Shelvey took the corner on the hour mark that led to the equaliser, playing a quick one-two with Alejandro Pozuelo before firing a low cross into the box. Flores got the decisive touch and celebrated like a mad man. Graham’s head stayed bowed.

Hull responded well and could have been awarded a penalty when Alex Bruce’s header hit Dwight Tiendalli on a hand but referee Martin Atkinson waved away the appeals.

Yannick Sagbo letting the ball run out of play in the hope of a Hull goal-kick then led to another flashpoint as Atkinson awarded a corner. Williams and Sagbo fought over the ball, then Tom Huddlestone and Shelvey joined the unseemly scrap.

—Daily Mail