Tate Hits Out At Referee's Costly Mistakes

Swansea City defender and vice-captain Alan Tate has hit out and yet more poor refereeing decisions, following Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

The former Manchester United player says there's been so many poor decisions gone against us this season that it looks like a conspiracy.

The referee made two big decisions that didn't go in our favour on Saturday, decisions that could have made a big difference to the game and the result. Pratley was denied a stone-wall penalty, and there was a clear offside just before Forest won the corner that got them the all-important winning goal.

The Swans camp were fuming after the game and rightly so, as this is hardly the first time that we've suffered some terrible decisions from FA match officials. Tate even gives examples of some of them:

'That decision (the penalty claim) could cost us £60million as a club.

'You can excuse one or two going against you in a season, but this is getting ridiculous.

'I can tell you a few off the top of my head that have gone against us — Craig Beattie not getting a penalty at Doncaster; the penalty farce at Plymouth; the free-kick for Reading's goal at their place; another penalty that Beats didn't get at home to Blackpool.

'If we had made two mistakes like he (Webster) made we wouldn't be in the team for next week. Maybe he shouldn't be reffing in the league next week.

Tate also comments on the referee's poor decisions during Saturday's game at the City Ground:

'That decision (the penalty claim) could cost us £60million as a club.

'You can excuse one or two going against you in a season, but this is getting ridiculous.

'I can tell you a few off the top of my head that have gone against us — Craig Beattie not getting a penalty at Doncaster; the penalty farce at Plymouth; the free-kick for Reading's goal at their place; another penalty that Beats didn't get at home to Blackpool.

'If we had made two mistakes like he (Webster) made we wouldn't be in the team for next week. Maybe he shouldn't be reffing in the league next week.

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