Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce has launched a scathing attack on referee Paul Tierney after the Eagles' boss claimed his side were denied a "blatant" penalty during their 2-1 defeat to Swansea Cityon Tuesday evening.
Moments after seeing Christian Benteke's strong penalty appeal turned down, Palace fell a goal behind followingAlfie Mawson's neat header and though Wilfried Zaha levelled the scores with a stunning volley, they conceded a late Angel Rangel goal which condemned them to yet another defeat.
Speaking after the match, Allardyce made it clear he felt his side should have been awarded a penalty and appeared to question the referee's experience after suggesting that the decision altered the course of the match.
The Palace boss toldSky Sports:"(It was a) blatant one on Benteke, I mean just outrageous the decision wasn't given.
SA: There were two controversial decisions. My chairman has told me about the second one, but I was more incensed by the first.
"Paul is very young in terms of Premier League experience, and didn't want to give a major decision the right way, sadly for us.
"At that stage of the game when we were struggling it would have meant a great lift for us and you may have seen a different result."
Having slammed the referee's performance, Allardyce then conceded that he also took some of theresponsibility for the defeat, although he admitted that he was confused by some ofhis players' decision making.
He added:"We had Wilfried scoring a fantastic goal, but when we needed just to shut it down we didn't and let them sneak the winner.
SA: We tried to get it right after half time. The sad thing for me, besides not playing well, was conceding from another set play.
"Whether you're feeling tired or not you've got to show more effort than that. We change the system a little bit because I was just baffled to see our players lumping it up to Benteke (in the first half).
"I had to ask the question at half-time of who told them to do that. If you're going to play it off Benteke do it like Swansea did off [Fernando] Llorente. Play it to his feet and chest then he'll hold it up and we can spring off him.
"Perhaps I picked the wrong side and should have made more changes. Looking back now I should've changed four or five and put fresher legs on and we might have got a result.
"I take a bit of responsibility myself, but I've only been here for a short time and it's difficult to know what the players are and aren't capable of, but I'm getting to know that very quickly."