Michael O’Neill calls Stoke defeat to Swansea a “disappointing” mishap
The Potters boss questioned the “100% certain” actions of the referee after the latter decided to grant Swansea a penalty in the final minutes of the game.
Michael O’Neill expressed his frustration with
Stoke’s 2-1 defeat to
Swansea, claiming that their opponents were not deserving of the penalty given to them in injury-time.
The penalty came after the referee, David Webb, announced that
Jack Clarkehas made a foul on
Kyle Naughtonin the 94th minute, allowing
Andre Ayewto score the winner for his side.
O’Neill, who was furious with the referee’s decision, said:
“It was an incorrect call in my opinion. It looked as though he tripped over his own leg, only he knows if he dived, but the assistant on that side didn’t give it. It was down to the referee.”
“It’s very frustrating because we are in an environment where there are no fans and teams are claiming for everything and putting officials under pressure and they need to be stronger.”
“If 20,000 fans are in the stadium tonight I can’t see him giving that. I’ve watched it back three times and I can’t see how the referee could say he is 100% certain.”
“It’s disappointing. We hit the post and bar and the least we deserved was a point.”
The first goal of the game came in the 6th minute of the match through
Nick Powellbefore
Connor Robertsscored the equalizer for Steve Cooper’s side.
Talking about the penalty drama, Cooper said:
“I’ll be honest I haven’t seen it back on the TV but I thought it was a penalty at the time. It certainly looked a penalty to me.”
“It was Kyle Naughton and with him being a defender, it’s usually the other way around with the actions he has in defending those situations. I don’t know but it certainly looked a penalty.”
“You are hoping a winner will come and you never give up, you keep going and that’s what happened.”
“We got our chance with the penalty at the end, we were passing our way up the pitch and we had our wide centre-backs getting in the box to try to create. We were just keeping going and doing what we do and in the end it paid off with the last kick of the game.”
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