Monday 20 October 2014 07:22, UK
Garry Monk hit out at the match officials following Swansea City's defeat at Stoke City, branding a contentious penalty call 'a disgrace'.
The visitors took the lead at the Britannia Stadium with a spot-kick of their own, with Wilfried Bony converting from 12 yards after being manhandled inside the box by Ryan Shawcross at a corner.
Referee Michael Oliver levelled things up two minutes before half-time when Victor Moses went down theatrically under pressure from Angel Rangel.
The penalty against, for me, is a disgrace. It’s a disgraceful decision. Not in a million years a penalty. The problem now is that a lot of times in a season there are match-changing decisions going against us. I don’t see anything being done about it.
The Stoke winger did appear to go down a little easy, paving the way for Charlie Adam to restore parity and substitute Jon Walters to step off the bench and nod home a second-half winner.
Monk was understandably disappointed afterwards and believes a lack of consistency from football’s law enforcers needs to be addressed, with the relevant authorities seemingly reluctant to help.
He told Sky Sports on the match-altering penalty decisions, starting with the one awarded to his side: “It’s a penalty. I watched it back and Shawcross has hands all over Bony, twists him around and then pulls Bony to the ground. For me, that’s a penalty.
“The penalty against, for me, is a disgrace. It’s a disgraceful decision. Not in a million years a penalty.
“The problem now is that a lot of times in a season there are match-changing decisions going against us. I don’t see anything being done about it.
“I’ve spoken to the referee about it, I’ve spoken to the association about it, and I don’t hear anything from Mike Riley coming back to me at all, which I find poor leadership.
“The whole thing is beginning to mount up now and is becoming a very worrying situation.”
Monk added: “It’s happening a lot, match-changing decisions.
“It’s a disgraceful decision because not in a million years…I’ve looked straight at their bench and even they couldn’t believe he had given a penalty. That tells you everything.”
Pressed on whether Moses should shoulder more of the blame for going to ground, Monk said: “He should be punished for diving, a clear dive, which is cheating.
“He’s cheating the ref and then the ref has cheated us in terms of giving a decision that never was.
“I think it’s a poor, poor decision and it’s cost us at a vital time. We were coming into half-time and should have been coming in 1-0 up, and it’s a different game then.
“It went against us. It’s going against us a lot this season.”
Hughes responded to Monk's accusations and told Sky Sports: “I heard him say that my player is a cheat, which is unacceptable in my view.
“He’s obviously upset. We have to come here 20 minutes after the game and speak about what’s gone on and sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Maybe that will come from experience.”
