All fired up COOPER BLAZING AT PEN BLOW
STEVE COOPER proved that the Welsh ‘firebreak’ has not turned down his own heat as he breathed angry flames towards referee Oliver Langford.
The Swans boss was in a fury after the softest of penalty awards that enabled Nahki Wells to equalise for the Robins seven minutes from time.
Wales full-back Connor Roberts appeared to do nothing more than slip over as he attempted to meet a long ball pumped in – but since City’s Antoine Semenyo also took a tumble, the official pointed to the spot.
Wells chipped the spot-kick home to deny the Swans second place in the table.
Cooper – whose team looked in control after Jamal Lowe put them ahead just after the break – revealed that he had misgivings about Langford’s appointment before the game. He also claimed the official refused to speak to him afterwards.
“For a decision to be made like that, it’s hard to keep my mouth shut to be honest,” said Cooper.
“We had talked about this referee in the pre-match build-up. And it was true to form.
“This league is so hard to get points in so to be on the end of a decision like that when we were so comfortable is a difficult one to take.”
You can only leave Wales to go to work at present so it felt right that Swansea appeared as if they were going to do a job on Bristol City.
The other justification to escape the Welsh lockdown is to give care so Lowe ticked that box too by taking care of business with a superb opener.
He was put through by Roberts and unleashed a powerful drive into the corner with Dan Bentley well beaten.
“If anything, I thought we were going to win by another goal,” added Cooper.
But the Robins will feel that they deserved a point for their perseverance, although boss Dean Holden admitted the penalty call would have felt harsh had he been on the receiving end. “Having said that, we had a stonewall penalty on Tuesday night on Tyreeq Bakinson which wasn’t given and they do say it evens itself up,” said Holden.
“I didn’t expect it to even out four days later, to be honest. But we kept pushing and we went with four strikers on the pitch at the end to try and win.”