Planet Swans ArchivesWhilst Wilfried Bony’s late goal was brilliantly executed it will once again be the performance of a referee who failed to notice a goalkeeper handling the ball a full 3 yards outside his area who steals the headlines just a week or so after he was forced to apologise to Jose Mourinho for another horrendous mistake.
The late sending off of Wayne Routledge was another situation that should never have happened as Anthony Taylor proved that he should probably be nowhere near the Premier League given the amazing standard of how bad he can make decisions.
It wasn’t just those two decisions either, there were numerous ones through the game but these will be the two that will be in the spotlight and – as Garry Monk said after the game – reducing QPR to 10 men so early in the game would have changed the play totally and it was probably one of the easiest decisions of the season to give as well.
Routledge was clear at the time having been played in and as he went round the advancing Green, the goalkeeper got his hand to the ball and deflected it away from the Swans players path. As we watched and waited for the whistle the Swans played on and it became apparent that the referee and the linesman had both missed the incident and there would be no punishment of a free kick let alone the accompanying red card that should have ensued.
Surprisingly there was little protest from the Swans side but the replays showed how bad the decision was straight away and you have to question how two officials can miss something so obvious happening right in front of them. There simply is no excuse.
The Swans were behind soon after when Fer picked up a poor Fernandez header to smash home from 25 yards past Fabianski who really stood no chance. A goal down was not really what we deserved at that point in time.
This though was an entertaining game of football that yielded almost 50 attempts at goal evenly split between the two sides and there was continuous chances at both ends. Largely though for both teams these shots were off target with Routledge, Fernandez and Gomis all guilty of failing to hit the target when well placed as the Swans looked to force their way back into the game.
You did always get the feeling though that the goal was coming and the introduction of Bony suggested that could come closer and he was soon forcing an excellent save from Green with a free kick just outside the box.
But before the goal came we had to have the sending off of Routledge that should be appealed and should be overturned as he was adjudged to have kicked out and was shown a straight red card. Another farcial decision from a referee who for me is clearly out of his depth.
It was Ki that set up the Bony goal as he cut in from the right hand side and found our top scorer in the area who then turned and hit a powerful shot that Green had no chance with and earned the Swans a point.
It ended a reasonably successful Christmas period for the Swans with seven points from the twelve available earned and a step closer towards the first goal of the season.
But as we reflect back on the first game of 2015 it will be the performance of the referee that remains top of the agenda and that should never happen. A bit like Anthony Taylor taking charge of a Premier League game in the near future.
QPR 1 Swansea City 1 The Referee 2
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