Selected quotes from the media regarding Robert Madley's mystifying and stupefying decision to award Stoke a penalty
I know I say that I don't like talking about this stuff a lot, and that's true, but if everyone else is...
Angel Rangel
“I am obviously disappointed by that decision but we can't talk much about the referees. We are always the ones who get fined but hopefully in this case it won't be the players who get punished but it will be the referee as we have done nothing wrong. When referees make mistakes they should be the ones to get punished.
http://www.adifferentleague.co.uk/p6_0_22744_-.html#.UoD3_vmpWQw
Michael Laudrup
“In every game there are talking points over decisions, but when I saw it again, or even out there, there are seven Stoke players in the box and none were asking for a penalty, apart from Peter Crouch who was appealing for a corner, so there was only one man in the stadium who thought it was a penalty, and unfortunately that was the referee."
http://www.adifferentleague.co.uk/p6_0_22744_-.html#.UoD3_vmpWQw
Ashley Williams
"It seemed like none of their players asked for a penalty, maybe one of them was appealing for a corner. It was a shock to everyone and I didn't see a handball from Wayne or Leon (Britton). I think both sides were surprised by the decision."
http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/swansea-city/news/williams-shocked-by-stoke-penalty_117249.html
Leon Britton
“I thought maybe he’d given the penalty against me on the line, even though I cleared it with my belly, then I saw the reaction of their players and I thought he had given a goal kick. Then I saw he had pointed to the spot even though not one player had appealed for a penalty. I haven’t seen the replay, but I honestly can’t see where it has come from to be honest. It is very frustrating, especially when a draw feels like a defeat even though we were 2-0 down.”
http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/lb-post-stoke-1166885.aspx?#m7P8BGBtVXfYFuRZ.99
To be honest, I could have gone on and on. There's little point though, other than to once again flag up that certain clubs just don't seem to get decisions going in their favour. I don't think you can use Swansea v Stoke as an example of big-club bias, however elsewhere there have been numerous recent incidents which seem to indicate that there is still a case to be made for this.
Hopefully we won't be talking about disputed penalties again for a long time.