Roberts sticks up for Swans over penalties

Friday, 12 March 2021, 8:02
2 mins read

Many accusations have been aimed at the Swans in recent games after a spate of penalties – two of them in the last minute of games – leading to discussions of favours coming from referees and that we are “cheating our way to promotion”

It started with a debatable award of a last minute penalty at Stoke and since then has led to Neil Warnock moaning about almost every decision following his side’s defeat at the Liberty last Saturday and even criticism of a midweek penalty we earned at Blackburn.

Most of us will accept that the Stoke penalty was fortunate but when you examine the other decisions given then each of them was the right call and therefore the correct outcome was achieved.ย  ย I am sure some will read that and believe it to be a one-eyed view and maybe if the roles were reversed then the feeling would be different but each of the decisions (whether they are disallowed goals or penalties) was ultimately correct.

And that is a view echoed by former Norwich and Wales international Iwan Roberts who used his newspaper column to back up the Swans over the decisions amidst some of the allegations that have been made.

Writing in his column in the Eastern Daily Press, Roberts wrote: “Talking of Swansea, they moved level on points with second-placed Watford on Wednesday night after their 1-1 draw up atย Ewoodย Park. It cameย thanks to an Andreย Ayewย penalty kick,ย his and Swanseaโ€™sย fourth penalty in as many games, something that has really got under the skin and angered quite a few of their rival supporters.

“I like Swansea and have a lot of time for them as a football club. They have some great people working there that Iโ€™ve got to know over the years and are always very welcoming whenever I visit The Liberty.

“Thatโ€™s why Iย feel the need to stick up for theย Swans after some of the things thatย haveย been said about them andย what theyโ€™ve been labelledย asย over the last couple of weeksย –ย well,ย since they were awarded that last-minute penalty up at Theย Bet365 stadium last week.

“Ask any Swansea supporter and they will be honest enough to tell you that it wasnโ€™t a penalty against Stoke when Kyle Naughton was adjudged to have been bought down with seconds of the game left. I think he anticipated contact which never happened and dived, simple as that. Every clubโ€™s had them given for them!

“You would think heโ€™s the only player ever to have dived to win a penalty the way some people were going on about it!

“Itโ€™s made me quite angry the way people have been saying how Swansea are going to cheat their way to promotion after a couple of decisions have gone their way in the last couple of weeks, soย Iย did a little bit of homework to fight their corner.

“Last season, Swansea were awarded four penalties in their 46 league games. This season theyโ€™ve been awarded five, four of which have been given since February 27. So up until then they had been given just one penalty in their opening 30 games – that doesnโ€™t smell of a team trying to cheat their way to promotion if you ask me.”

With the Swans heading to Luton tomorrow to face the Hatters, Nathan Jones even referenced the penalties in his press conference yesterday when he said “I donโ€™t like speaking about other teams and players, but I was at the game at Blackburn on Tuesday night.

โ€œMy immediate reaction, which has been backed up, was that it probably wasnโ€™t a penalty.

โ€œThen I watched the Stoke game and thought it was a tough one, I havenโ€™t actually seen the Middlesbrough one, but Iโ€™ve been told that that was extremely harsh as well.

“Sometimes the wind blows your way, but weโ€™ll be hoping that no poor decisions are made by our players and anyone else in the stadium.”

Which of course is a lot of words for someone that ‘doesn’t like talking about other teams.

The penalties row rumbles on!

Images courtesy of Getty Images, Athena Picture Agency and Swansea City Football Club.

Phil Sumbler

Been watching the Swans since the very late 1970s and running the Planet Swans website (in all its current and previous guises since the summer of 2001 As it stood JackArmy.net was right at the forefront of some of the activity against Tony Petty back in 2001, breaking many of the stories of the day as fans stood against the actions where the local media failed. Was involved with the Swans Supporters Trust from 2005, for the large part as Chairman before standing down in the summer of 2020.

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