Swansea count the cost of poor officiating.
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| Garry Monk is beaten to the ball by Romelu Lukaku for West Brom's first goal. |
As the dust settles on this encounter, it's sad that the biggest talking point will remain a decision made by two Lee's. With the score 2-1 to WBA, there were five minutes remaining when Roland Lamah received the ball on the right wing. He jinked his way into the penalty area, beating his man and attempting a cross which cannoned back to him off defender and goalkeeper, before proceeding to tuck the ball in with his left foot to cue wild celebrations. The goal appeared to come on the back of a spell of Swansea pressure (arguably their best spell in the second half), and to say that it would have changed the game is stating the obvious given how late in the day it came. Alas, it was not to be. Between them, Lee Mason and Lee Betts decided the goal shouldn't stand, presumably, because of some purported offside. Replays have clearly shown the ball struck no Swansea player after leaving Lamah's foot, and the goal should have stood. Swansea's players were furious, and Laudrup, in his post-match interview, was infuriated in a way we were previously yet to see.
“What happened in the disallowed goal is against the rules. How can you disallow when ball comes from opponent? It’s like being offside from a throw-in. It’s come off two opponents – the goalkeeper and the defender.
“How can you disallow that goal? You don’t know the rules or you have not seen it. He is a linesman so he must know the rules.
“If you see a linesman flag for offside from a throw-in, you would laugh. I can assure you I did not laugh after this one.” A clearly unimpressed Michael Laudrup
The game started brightly for the Swans. Moving the ball around well, they weren't quite at their free-flowing best, however you did get a small sense of just why the Swans have been so successful in overcoming West Brom. There were times when the intricate passing threatened to undo the Baggies, but they held firm with McAuley and Olsson in proving particularly imperious. Without Leon Britton (suffering with a minor hip injury) the Swans went with a reshuffled lineup, with Ki & De Guzman anchoring the midfield, and Michu ahead of them. Luke Moore was rewarded for his goal-scoring cameo with his first start for a good while, and only took 30-odd minutes to repay his manager's faith.
Swansea earned a corner, and despite the Swans' usual profligacy at set pieces Luke Moore managed to rise highest to meet Jonathan De Guzman's delivery. It really was an excellent header from Moore, twisting and stooping to eventually head it virtually backwards towards goal. The direction was, however, perfect, and Ben Foster was unable to prevent the ball travelling across him into the far corner.
The Swans' lead was short-lived however - Chris Brunt rose highest to flick the ball on to Graham Dorrans, whose low cross was aimed towards the imperious Lukaku (who has the tag of "highest scoring teenager in Europe" - despite looking like a seasoned heavyweight boxer), and Lukaku got in front of Garry Monk to turn home Graham Dorrans' low cross first time. It has to be said that the Belgian centre-forward enjoyed a very good day at the office - by going with Monk ahead of Bartley, the Swans did run the risk of the frontman getting the better of us for most of the game, and his physicality seemed to be something the Swans struggled with. Lukaku's goal was the last real incident in the first half, however there was just time for Billy Jones to pick up a caution for a challenge on Michu before the half drew to a close.
The second half kicked off and WBA seemed a rejuvenated side. Their passing and pressing had a renewed vigour to it, and it was with no real surprise that the Swans found themselves being pushed further and further back towards their own goal. A succession of West Brom shots, and Swansea fouls, culminated in Wayne Routledge giving away a penalty. Another strange call, when you look at it. I've only seen limited replays, but it seemed there were two potential "fouls" - the first outside the area and the second inside. When I first saw the replay, my initial reaction was that the second challenge (on James Morrison) definitely seemed to involve Routledge getting to the ball first. Either way, Lee Mason felt it prudent to award a penalty and Lukaku picked the ball up confidently, as we'd expect from a player who has been wreaking havoc with more celebrated defences than the Swans'.
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| Vorm saves Lukaku's spot-kick |
He hadn't, however, done his homework. If he had, he'd have known that Michel Vorm has a reputation for saving spot-kicks - earning himself the nickname "The Penalty Killer" no less. Granted, decent penalties are fairly impossible to save, however Lukaku's effort was, in truth, rather weak. He hit it low to Vorm's right, but when Vorm made the save he was no more than halfway between his starting position in the centre of the goal and his right-hand upright. The striker will have gone away knowing he should have done better. WBA, though, didn't have too long to wait for what seems, now that I'm writing about it, like another in a series of lucky breaks.
With Swansea defending a corner, Gareth McAuley rose highest to power a header towards goal. It was, in fairness, heading towards goal but Angel Rangel, positioned well, was in the right place at the right time to head the ball clear. One man who most definitely wasn't in the right place at the right time was Jonathan De Guzman. The Dutch international found himself directly in front of the Swansea right-back - and (completely unwittingly) the ball struck the back of his head before deflecting back into the Swansea net. Most unlucky, but that's why organisation is important at set-pieces.
A fairly unmemorable twenty-five minutes of football then passed, with the Swans taking more control as time went on. The substitution of Lukaku left WBA with no outlet to relieve pressure, and the Swans found themselves pressing higher and higher, and able to retain more and more possession. At the height of this pressure, as mentioned, Lamah burst through to score a perfectly legitimate goal from close range - but the officials deemed fit to disallow it. Water under the bridge now, but there can surely only be so many of these incidents in a multi-billion pound industry before enough is enough and technology gets involved. In his post-match interview, Steve Clarke only acknowledges one piece of luck, although deep-down he'll know that winning a game in which you've missed a penalty, conceded two legitimate goals, and had the help of an own-goal means that you've had more than one lucky break.
"We got a lucky break. It should have been given. It was a goal. I think it came off Ben Foster last so that is fortuitous. But sometimes when you put in the effort, energy and quality we did into that game... I think we earned that little break.
"We deserved to win the game. Don't be writing down that we didn't deserve to win the game. I'm delighted because we came from behind. We don't do it very often and in the Premier League there are not too many teams that can do it." Steve Clarke
One final note, is that I predicted it 2-2. With both sides scoring two legitimate goals each, I'm claiming that as a moral victory. It's not my fault the Premier League can't get any decent officials...