Swansea manager Alan Sheehan hits out at referee in Millwall draw

Swansea boss Alan Sheehan hit out at referee Dean Whitestone when his side were denied a ‘stonewall’ penalty in the 1-1 home draw with Millwall.

The Swans’ manager said he would be asking referee Dean Whitestone for an explanation of why he did not award his side a penalty in the 74th minute when Vipotnik appeared to be pulled back as he went to turn in a Josh Tymon cross from the left in front of goal.

“It was a stonewall penalty – I don’t know what else to say,” said Sheehan.

“These are the decisions right now, we had one last week and now this one. When the league is so tight, with teams from the bottom beating sides at the top, these are the games in which you want to keep accumulating points so it’s a decision I feel the referee got wrong.

“You have to give referees 30 minutes after the game before speaking to them and so I’ll be asking him why he got it wrong. Unfortunately, it’s gone now and we don’t want to be a team that is unlucky and whingeing about decisions, and we know we need to be more clinical in the final third.

“We were very good for large parts of the first half and then got the goal. But we conceded a set-piece on the stroke of half-time that we didn’t defend properly.

“We’ve got to find a way of getting that second goal.”

Alex Neil hopes Josh Coburn can build on his first goal of the season after Millwall maintained their unbeaten away record in the Championship with a draw.

Coburn struck on the stroke of half-time to cancel out Zan Vipotnik’s sixth goal in seven games this season, an instinctive backheel that gave the home side the lead in the 12th minute.

It meant the Lions kept their two-point lead over their hosts in mid-table and built on their 1-0 home win over Watford earlier in the week.

“That’s a good end to a pretty good week for us and it was nice to see Josh getting a goal,“ said Millwall boss Alex Neil.

“It was a really hard-fought game and Swansea were very good at the start. Resilience is important and you need to see things through when other teams are playing well.

“Their goal was disappointing from our perspective and meant we had to find a way to get back into the match.

“Ben Cabango somehow got in front of Josh to scoop the ball over the bar just before our goal and I’m really pleased for Josh. He’s been getting into the right positions and creating chances, but he hasn’t been converting. I just hope things start to click for him now he’s off the mark.

“Swansea hadn’t been beaten in 10 games at home in all competitions before we came here and it was a tough game against a good side that is well coached.

“We finished last season very well and so the expectations were sky-high coming into this campaign. But what we’ve had to contend with in terms of injuries, seven or maybe eight of them at times, has made it difficult.

“We’ve just had to get on with it because nobody cares about that.”