MANAGER’S VIEW: CARLOS CARVALHAL

CARLOS Carvalhal was left to rue yet more refereeing-related woes for Swansea City after his side were denied a first-half penalty in their 1-1 draw at Newcastle.

The Swans had taken the lead on Tyneside through Jordan Ayew’s header, but they only led for eight minutes before substitute Joselu found the far corner on the turn.

However, Swansea could easily have been a goal and a man to the good before the break.

A Swansea corner had been headed goalward by Kyle Bartley and Mike van der Hoorn’s shot was blocked by the arm of Mohamed Diame, with the Magpies midfielder moving his arm towards the ball to prevent it finding the net.

However, neither referee Graham Scott nor his assistants saw it and Swansea’s appeals fell on deaf ears.

Had the misdemeanour been spotted Swansea would have had a penalty and Diame would have been all but certain to receive his marching orders.

The non-award of the penalty comes hot on the heels of Leroy Fer’s red card at Wolves – which has since been rescinded – and an offside goal and Robert Madley’s decision not to send off Davinson Sanchez proving costly in the defeat to Tottenham.

In a week where the use of Video Assistant Referees has been trialled in FA Cup fixtures, it was not lost on the Swans boss were such a system already in place in the Premier League, his side may well have left the north-east with more than a solitary point to their name.

“I must be honest, I didn’t see it (penalty claim) at the time,” said Carvalhal.

“I did not have a clear view, but with the technology we have, my assistant was then able to take a look and he said it was a clear penalty and a red card for Diame, but the referee didn’t see it so it’s part of the game.

“Usually teams in our position have these type of decisions not go in our favour, I don’t know why.

“But I think we can say that with VAR it would have been a penalty and a red card.

“In 10 seconds the video referee could communicate, say to stop the game and issue a red card and give a penalty.

“It was like against Tottenham, their first goal is offside and would not be valid, the same way as our first goal at Watford because, even if it was one centimetre, my player was offside.”

RAFA Benitez revealed he has no problems with Jonjo Shelvey after the midfielder reacted angrily to being substituted during Newcastle United’s 1-1 draw with former club Swansea City.

The 25-year-old cut a frustrated figure when he was replaced by Mikel Merino in the 82nd minute of the encounter at St James’ Park.

And Shelvey appeared to swat away Benitez’s handshake when the Spaniard approached the former Swan as he left the pitch.

But speaking in his post-match press conference, Benitez admitted he had no issues with the way Shelvey reacted.

“Any player, when you are not winning a game like this they have to be disappointed if they do not continue playing but we have to make our substitutions,” said former Liverpool boss Benitez. “I didn’t have any problem.” Shelvey spurned a great opportunity to put the Magpies ahead against his former side in the first half as he blazed a free-kick over the bar.