"One Nil To The Referee" sang out loud from the away end at the end of the Swans unbeaten run ending at Nottingham Forest

The travelling Swansea City faithful were referring to a diabolical decision not to award the Swans a penalty when Darren Pratley was hauled down in the area just as he was about to pull the trigger to give the Swans the lead.

25,000 plus people all believed it was about to be a penalty but the referee thought afterwards and ignored the protests from the Swans players to wave play on, a decision that ultimately meant the Swans unbeaten run came to an end.

To add insult to injury a disputed corner in stoppage time led to the Forest goal when Chambers capitalised on a Dorus De vries error from the corner to head Forest to victory and lift the home side back into 2nd place in the Championship table.

Defeat was harsh on the Swans who had battled well with their hosts throughout the 90 minutes showing that there really was little between the sides as there had been at the Liberty back in December.  Not helped by yet another inept refereeing performance - where do the FA drag these muppets from? - the Swans matched their hosts almost blow for blow as the two sides fought for the right to seemingly challenge the automatic promotion spots.

The Swans - with all their injury problems - had lined up as follows

Dorus

Rangel     Tate     Williams     Richards

Dyer     Britton     Pratley     Gower     Butler

Kuqi

It was a bright start for the Swans and both Pratley and Kuqi had early sights of goal from distance but both were off target before Forest could get into their own stride.   At the other end, the pace of the Forest attack looked as if it would cause the Swans problems as they probed but failed to really trouble Dorus in the early stages.

That soon changed as an instinctive save from De Vries kept the score blank whilst Cohen missed arguably the best chance of the half when he volleyed over when well placed.

Kuqi had the Swans best chance when he fought his way clear but his attempted lob was not high enough to clear the advancing Camp in the Forest goal and at half time there was no score.

Cedric Van Der Gun replaced the hugely disappointing Nathan Dyer at half time and immediately the Swans seemed to have a little more danger on the left hand side of midfield.   But slowly Forest were gaining a slight upper hand and a couple of low shots found their way to Dorus who was more than equal to the saves low down.

Pratley had already just missed a Kuqi cross when the main talking point of the half took place.   The ball was heading to him in the area and it looked for all money as if he was about to pull the trigger and give the Swans the lead when he went down under challenge.   There was no logical reason for that other than it being a penalty and having decided not to give it surely a booking would follow for diving.  The fact that one didn't says it all and the protests were led by Van Der Gun and Butler as well as Pratley but all to no avail.  An incredibly bad decision.

The fourth official was holding up a board showing 3 minutes of stoppage time when Rangel appealed in vaion for an offside against Blackstock meaning he had given away a corner.   The corner came in and De vries misjudged it before Chambers stooped to head the ball in and secure the points for the visitors.

Painful for the Swans it was but this is - in my view - a minor setback and we remain very much on track to remain very much a part of this promotion race and, knowing the way that Paulo galvanises his team, I would not be surprised to see us bounce back even stronger starting on Tuesday night against Watford.

Finally, full marks to the travelling support once more again today - a support well acknowledged by Paulo and the players at the end.

Photo: Action Images

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