Football: Swanson left frustrated over penalty kick denial

Published on Monday 16 March 2009 08:48

DANNY SWANSON has revealed his frustration at not being awarded a penalty which could have changed the course of Dundee United's 2-1 Clydesdale Bank Premier League defeat at Motherwell.

The United substitute came off second best in a heavy challenge with Fir Park midfielder Maros Klimpl in the final quarter of the game.

As he lay on the ground and the travelling support howled for a spot-kick, the hosts instead broke upfield and went on to score their winner, headed home by David Clarkson.

Swanson, who came on at half-time in place of Jon Daly, said: "I had the ball under control and saw him coming so I knocked it out, but he just kept running and ran straight into me.

"It's a penalty in my eyes but the referee hasn't given it, so I've just got to deal with it, but it's a hard one to take because they just went straight up the park and scored.

"Afterwards, the referee just showed me the yellow card; I ran back to where I was supposed to be without saying anything.

"This is a hard place to come, and the conditions like the pitch and the wind didn't help; I thought we did well and that we played good enough football out there, but it just didn't work out for us."

John Sutton opened the scoring for Motherwell midway through the first half, at a time when United were temporarily down to 10 men while defender Garry Kenneth had stitches in a head wound.

Tannadice substitute Francisco Sandaza equalised five minutes after his half-time introduction, before Clarkson got the winner which narrowed the gap between fourth-placed United and seventh-placed Motherwell to just four points.

Sutton revealed his delight at his side's return to winning ways after their remarkable unbeaten streak of nine games was ended in their previous match at Hearts 10 days ago.

He said: "This was a great win because it's pretty tight for the top six and European places; we're now three points closer to Dundee United and the aim is to finish fourth.

"We have a lot of good players in the dressing room and there's no reason why we can't push on, have a decent run and finish up there.

"Now we're only four points behind fourth place, and the first priority is to ensure we make the top six; after that, I think the last five games will be very interesting because there will be a lot of six-pointers played in that period."