Monk quietly fumes as Chamakh rides luck to give Palace a lift
APPROPRIATELY it was a man called Mile who put a little distance between Crystal Palace and the relegation zone here. Whether he should have had the chance to save their day is a question that no doubt ran laps in Garry Monk’s mind last night.
Once again, a game featuring Swansea came down to a couple of contentious refereeing calls, including one to award a penalty against Jonjo Shelvey for a challenge on Marouane Chamakh and a later decision to let the striker stay on the pitch.
The penalty certainly looked soft, but Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot and Mile Jedinak converted for a 25thminute equaliser which, until that stage, had been nowhere in sight.
Credit to Palace for finding a way back without the use of satellite navigation, but Monk would have had cause to debate the central decision, even if he did tread more cautiously after the furore around his recent complaints about referees.
‘It is difficult because the footage I have seen is pretty inconclusive,’ Monk said.
‘The referee gave the action that his legs have been taken away from him. The footage I have seen (shows) there is no leg contact between the two players. It is more of an upper body.
‘I’m not too sure but it is inconclusive. He has given it and we have to deal with it.’
Perhaps more contentious were the calls that let Chamakh stay on the pitch.
He was booked for a foul on Neil Taylor and followed it by shouting at Atkinson. There was also a handball on the edge of his area and a petulant early throw of the ball after a decision.
Asked if he was lucky to stay on, Monk said: ‘Possibly, but that is not my focus. I don’t focus on the other team. I focus on my team.’
In which case, he has some work to do when it comes to holding on to leads in games. Having led through Wilfried Bony’s goal after 15 minutes, by which point Swansea had already missed two good chances in a dominant opening, the home side made it 13 points dropped from winning positions this season.
But it would be unfair
to draw too much attention away from Neil Warnock’s side. Whatever the merits of the penalty decision – Warnock thought it was a good call – they bounced back remarkably well from a terrible start and should have led after Jedinak’s equaliser, when Chamakh went clean through and shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski.
Warnock said: ‘The first 20 minutes were as bad as I’ve seen us play since I’ve been at the club. We couldn’t pass water. It was really poor. I thought it would be double figures after 15 minutes.
‘I saw Swansea batter Arsenal a couple of weeks ago so I knew how difficult it was going to be. Swansea always control the game. That’s how they are. But you have to give us credit as a lot of teams could have laid down.
‘We had a great chance at 1-1 with Chamakh’s chance and I went positive at the end and I thought we could pinch it. We might be limited in certain areas but we are an honest group.’