Rodgers, Warnock hit out at Probert

SWANSEA manager Brendan Rodgers and QPR boss Neil Warnock slammed the performance of referee Lee Probert after watching their sides play out an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Liberty Stadium.

Danny Graham’s first-half strike looked to have put the home side on their way to a fifth home win of the season, but Rs winger Jamie Mackie capitalised on Leon Britton’s poor defensive header to slot home just before the hour mark and end the visitors’ run of three straight defeats.

But Warnock felt his side would have taken all three points had Graham been penalised for handball in the build-up to his sixth strike of the campaign.

Replays suggested the ball had made contact with the striker’s hand as he controlled Wayne Routledge’s cross before turning and firing beyond Paddy Kenny, with the QPR defence and Warnock furious Probert allowed the goal to stand.

And Rodgers was also less than enamoured with the official’s display after he waved away appeals for what appeared a clear penalty when Armand Traore felled Graham in the second half.

Warnock said: “I am absolutely pleased with how we reacted with going a goal down but I am disappointed not to get the three points.

“We are very disappointed at their goal, as you would be. It’s a deliberate handball, he gains an advantage and he wouldn’t have scored otherwise.

“It was a certain handball, the referee said he saw the handball but that it was not deliberate, which disappoints me even more.

“It was a kick in the teeth, it felt such an injustice at half-time but it spurred us on.”

Rodgers was similarly scathing in his assessment of the decision that saw his side denied a spot-kick, branding Probert’s display as “inconsistent”.

“It was a clear penalty, I have had the chance to see it from a few angles and it was a definite penalty,” he said.

“I thought it summed up Lee’s performance which was interesting to say the least.

“He is a good lad on the circuit, trying to get experience, but he was very inconsistent right the way through, which did not help us.”

Given the impressive home form shown by his side this season, Rodgers admitted that he felt it was a case of two points dropped as the Swans remain 14th in the table.

And the Irishman faces an anxious wait to discover the extent of the ankle injury that eventually forced Angel Rangel off in the second half.

The right-back has just returned from an ankle problem, and he needed lengthy treatment after being hurt in Clint Hill’s first-half tackle.

QPR captain Joey Barton, meanwhile, made a quick exit from the Liberty Stadium following the game after his girlfriend, who is expecting their first child, went into labour.

He posted on his Twitter feed: “Game done, now to the hospital. Missus is going into labour. Great timing luv.”

SWANSEA: Vorm, Rangel (Moore 57), Williams, Caulker, Richards, Sinclair, Britton, Agustien, Allen, Routledge (Dyer 56),Graham.

QPR: Kenny, Young, Hill, Hall, Traore, Mackie, Barton, Derry, Faurlin, Taarabt, Helguson.

Ref: Lee Probert (Wiltshire).