Saturday 25 November 2017 18:30, UK
Swansea manager Paul Clement was left seething at referee Stuart Attwell after the 0-0 draw with Bournemouthhe believed his side were denied a perfectly good goal in the 0-0 draw with Bournemouth.
The Swans ended a five-match losing streak with a hard-earned point against the flying Cherries at the Liberty Stadium, but Clement feels his side ought to have earned all three points after Wilfried Bony's strike was controversially ruled out on the stroke of half-time.
Jordan Ayew was penalised for a foul on Nathan Ake before the ball was laid off for Bony to fire past Asmir Begovic, but referee Attwell blew for the infringement before the Ivorian striker found the net - much to Clement's anger.
He said after the stalemate: "It was a goal, and I stand by that having looked at it again. What I see is Nathan Ake and Jordan Ayew both fighting for that position, that the ball was coming into, and I saw our striker being stronger than their defender, and their defender just falling flat on the ground.
"I think that it's a really soft decision. If I compare that to another decision that wasn't given where there's a trailing arm that has gone on to the forehead of Roque Mesa which has split his head open, and not a foul is given I find that very strange for me. The overall performance of the referee was very poor.
"I told him at half-time that it was a really soft decision. Decisions that referees often give are different when they're in the normal field of play and when they're inside the penalty box."
Clement may have been referring to a decision late in the game not to award his side a penalty after Adam Smith appeared to take the legs of substitute Tammy Abraham, but Attwell waved away the protests with the incident taking place right on the edge of the area.
The point leaves Swansea still in 19th position, two points adrift of West Brom in 17th position but the hosts could so easily have wrapped up the victory late in the contest when Leroy Fer first had his shot saved by Begovic before he blazed the rebound into the side-netting.
Clement added: "I don't want to harbour on about the referee, I'm happier to speak about my team as it was one of our best performances of the season.
"It's wrong to get too excited because we haven't won the game but it was a much better performance in all aspects. There was a lot of passion, spirit and determination on show. It's clear that our players are very focused in wanting to turn around the poor form.
"I thought some of our football in spells was very encouraging. We had total control of the game in the second half and it's something to build on.
"The support of the team was brilliant, we have been a bit fragile in terms of confidence in recent games but they got behind them from the first whistle right until the last. Overall the performance was much more encouraging.
