Rob DaviesWayne Rooney looked very close to blowing up at the very end of today’s match as Derby County were denied what looked a certain penalty appeal.
The Rams were 2-0 down within the first twenty minutes thanks to two crisp Joel Piroe strikes but were handed a lifeline thanks to Andy Fisher’s moment of madness allowing Tom Lawrence to net from the spot.
But the referee’s display threatened to have a huge impact on the result when the Swans were denied a penalty for a hand-ball (which looked fairly stonewall from my view) and when the Derby keeper shoved Jamie Paterson off the ball when he was facing an empty net.
The latter decision should have resulted in a red card for the goalkeeper for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity after his own error had gifted the ball to Paterson but the referee was unmoved – as he was for several decisions that should have gone in Swansea’s favour.
His only saving grace was that the karma swing levelled out when Rooney’s team were denied that late penalty.
“I think everyone in the stadium agrees (it was a penalty), the Swansea manager, the Swansea staff, the Swansea fans, Derby players, staff, fans, everyone saw it was a clear penalty apart from the four officials,” Rooney said in his post-match press conference.
“I have said it time and time again. I understand it is difficult to give it when it is a tight one.
“When it is a clear obvious foul and penalty it leaves a lot of questions I have to ask the officials. I hope the referee gets banned and fined because that is not good enough.
“We have got a good, young, honest group of players who are working every day to try and help this club to try and get through the difficulties it is going through. We have got a young player [Cybulski] playing his second game as a sub, he has got an opportunity to score and is wrestled to the ground and the officials don’t see it. It is crazy.
“You can ask what do we do, do you get VAR in but the officials are looking at VAR on the screen and they are still getting decisions wrong. So I don’t know where we go.”
We are still waiting for our first penalty of the seasons itโs hard to feel sorry for Derby
Hey there Wayne what about the stonewall penalty for us in the first half plus your goalkeeper getting away with being red carded? Your ‘penalty’ would have meant nothing those decisions were the other way.