A dodgy red card, the red card that never was, and a brilliant late equaliser from Bony meant the travelling Jack Army had plenty to discuss on the way home
Wow. I cannot remember experiencing a range of emotions as severe as I felt today in a long, long time. After spending seemingly the entire match berating a decision not to send off a QPR player, my anger was only heightened when Routledge saw red for...something which was construed as a kick. Never mind Karl Henry smashed into him and could have done serious damage, that's just a yellow. Still, all of this was briefly forgotten when Wilf slammed home late on. What a game.
The match started with what will probably become the biggest talking point - the match officials missing Rob Green's blatant handball. The keeper came out to challenge Wayne Routledge - through on goal - but the Swansea winger got there first, and flicked the ball past the QPR man. Green was committed though, and in sliding outside his box his arm stopped the ball going beyond him. A definite red card, and one inexplicably missed by Anthony Taylor and his band of blinkered officials.
The Swans started, generally, on top I felt, but by about the fifteenth minute the tide had turned. QPR were pressing, and when Leroy Fer smashed home from twenty yards it was hard to say it hadn't been coming. Obviously though, QPR should have played 84 minutes with ten men so that's a factor you can't ignore. They seemed set to profit from this too for the majority of the match. Zamora inexplicably headed over, while Fabianski had to be alert on a number of other occasions to deal with Rangers' threat.
Half time came and Swansea, while they had a right to feel aggrieved about the refereeing decision, possibly didn't deserve to be on level terms. QPR had perhaps had the better chances, and we were struggling to create anything meaningful up top. Gomis had his best day in a Swans shirt I thought, but he's obviously still not up to speed and needs more games - which he now seems certain to get with Wilf in action for the Ivory Coast in the ACON.
Monk resisted the urge to bring Bony on at half-time, and after the break the Swans pushed more and more in search of an equaliser. The home side continued to create chances though, and Charlie Austin managed to head against the base of the post when well placed. In truth there were chances galore throughout - QPR had twenty-four attempts to Swansea's twenty-five - but there was yet more drama to come before the Swans got back on level terms.
After almost being snapped in half by Karl Henry, Wayne Routledge reacted and moved his foot in the direction of Henry while he was on the floor. That was not a kick - let's be honest "kicks" are something which happen quite a lot in football, so it's not like officials have no point of reference to compare against - but regardless of common sense and any other form of logic you'd wish to employ Anthony Taylor decided to follow up on not dismissing Rob Green by sending Wayne Routledge off for something far less clear-cut. A good day's work for the referee.
As mentioned though, the Swans got what they deserved in the end. They'd pressed hard for an equaliser, and after Routledge's red card they didn't give up. They got their reward when Bony - on as a late-ish substitute for Gylfi Sigurdsson - controlled the ball magnificently and stuffed it into the top corner. In my opinion it was a world class finish (click here to see it!), and on the balance of the ninety minutes I think a draw was a fair result, but the big positive for the Swans will be to have got something from a game which seemed to be conspiring against them.
I have no doubt that Monk congratulated his team for a hard-won point at a ground where QPR have had a lot of joy this season (their record at home is now W5 D4 L2), and rightly so. Today was a great result, and I'm glad that despite not being able to simply forget an awful refereeing decision the lasting memory of the game was a fantastic equalising goal in injury time from Wilfried Bony.
Let's hope it's not his last.