'The worst performance I have seen': Middlesbrough fans hit out at officials after Swansea City defeat

Boro boss Neil Warnock was unhappy with several decisions which went against his side – most notably when Marc Bola’s goal was disallowed after Yannick Bolasie was penalised.

That came after Andre Ayew had opened the scoring for the hosts, yet the Teessiders appeared to have salvaged a point when Sam Morsy scored a stoppage-time equaliser.

There was still time for a late twist, though, when referee Gavin Ward appeared to change his mind to award Swansea a penalty for George Saville’s tackle on Jake Bidwell.

Here’s how some Boro fans reacted on social media:

@loldixon: Absolute sickener for #Boro this afternoon. A display worthy of much more was sucker punched by awful refereeing. That’s probably curtains for our season now.

@ChristianDarby9: We deserved so much more from that game, thought we played well. Never, ever give us Gavin Ward again!

@HarryDonnelly_6: Absolute robbery, easy top three worst referee performances I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

@ghjrob: Played well and deserved a point at least. The worst refereeing performance I have ever seen, and that’s saying something given the quality of officiating week in week out in this league.

@ashstone37: Awful refereeing decisions today, most frustrated I’ve been after a game in ages, put a lot of fight into that and got scammed of a perfectly good goal, this league is a joke

@TravisB97: Played very well, robbed by the officials. Do all refs hate Boro or something?! Absolutely farcical

@We_are_Boro: Story of our season in one game. Poor ref decisions, although I thought it was a pen at the end. Two needless goals gifted to them. Thought we were the better team and at the very least deserved the draw.

@Kevinho_2: Beaten by the referee. It's not Swansea's fault. The referee has cheated us not our opponents

@Smithy_MFC84: I don’t normally blame the refs for a defeat, but that today had Gavin Ward’s hands all over it. Poor decision for the goal that wasn’t, and a scandalous decision for the penalty at the end.

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