Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce has criticised the "outrageous" decision not to award his team a first-half penalty in their defeat to Swansea City at Selhurst Park.
The Eagles were on the losing end of a 2-1 scoreline after Angel Rangel scored the winner in the 88th minute for Swansea, whose new manager Paul Clement watched from the stands.
Wilfried Zaha cancelled out Alfie Mawson's opener, and Palace could have been ahead prior to their opponents' goal when Christian Benteke was brought down by goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski in the box, but referee Paul Tierney waved away their claims.
"It was a blatant penalty on Christian Benteke, outrageous that it wasn't given. That would have been a great lift," BBC Sport quotes Allardyce as saying after the match.
"What went wrong? Not enough recovery time, no doubt about that. the energy of the players just couldn't get us in the faces of Swansea, they had an extra day and that told. You could see that. Our lads put so much in against Arsenal and you saw the effects of that. It wasn't an even playing field.
"It's difficult to take. We have all the science we have, we know the fatigue levels and the high intensity runs the players make and we knew they wouldn't be able to make them tonight. And they couldn't. Perhaps I picked the wrong side, I should have changed four or five. Whether you're tired or not you have to play and I told them that at half time. I was baffled with our first-half display, we were lumping the ball to Christian Benteke and who told them to do that? They were confused."
Palace sit one point above the relegation zone after 20 Premier League games, and Allardyce is yet to oversee a win since taking charge last month.
Danielle Joynson
