Hotshot Joel chips in at double to sink below par Rams
JOEL PIROE struck two perfect short irons the Masters field would have been proud of but it left bunkered Wayne Rooney in a rage.
Piroe’s sweet first-time efforts gave Swansea a 2-0 lead inside 16 minutes.
But they were left hanging on after Tom Lawrence’s penalty.
Rams boss Rooney was incensed his side were denied a penalty in added time when substitute Bartosz Cybulski tangled with Swans keeper Andy Fisher.
“I hope the referee gets banned and fined because that is not good enough,” stormed Rooney.
“We’ve got a young player coming on for his second game, he gets wrestled to the ground and the officials don’t see it. It’s crazy.
“You can ask what do we do? Do we get VAR in? But officials are looking at VAR on a screen and still getting decisions wrong, so I don’t know.”
The defeat – Derby’s third in five games – leaves them looking near enough doomed as they are still nine points from safety with only five games left.
Piroe clipped in a beauty for his first from the impressive Hannes Wolf’s cross and then pounced on an error by Curtis Davies to curl home a second.
A foul by Swansea keeper Andy Fisher on Luke Plange enabled Lawrence to pull one back from the spot, but the Rams have only scored more than one goal in a game once in 11 matches.
Swansea have four wins and a draw from five games and boss Russell Martin said: “I don’t think the play-offs are in my thinking at the moment, but my players may be different.”
SWANSEA: Fisher 6; Cabango 6, Naughton 7, Latibeaudiere 6; Christie 6, Fulton 6, Grimes 7, Wolf 7; Piroe 8 (Smith 76th), Paterson 6 (Ntcham (60th) 6); Obafemi 6 (Joseph 90th)
DERBY: Allsop 6; Byrne 6, Davies 5, Cashin 6, Buchanan 6 (Ebosele (46th) 7); Bielik 5, Thompson 6 (Cybulski 84th); Ebiowei 6, Morrison 6, Lawrence 7; Plange 6 (Knight (73rd) 6)
STAR MAN: Joel Piroe
REF: T Robinson