'They weren't good enough': Neil Warnock slams refereeing performance after Middlesbrough's dramatic defeat at Swansea City

Boro appeared to have salvaged a point from the match when Sam Morsy’s stoppage-time striker cancelled out Andre Ayew’s opener.

Yet a late Ayew penalty following a foul from George Saville on Jake Bidwell gave the hosts all three points, leaving Boro seven points off the play-off places.

“I’m just really disappointed, I thought the lads played some good football and I thought we were the best side on the pitch,” Warnock told Sky Sports after the match.

“I didn’t see them have many chances at all and we’ve been let down by poor officials really nothing else.”

Warnock was most upset that Marc Bola’s strike was disallowed when Yannick Bolasie slid the ball back to his team-mate but was penalised for a foul.

The Boro boss was also unhappy that Swansea’s Ryan Manning wasn’t punished for a foul on Anfernee Dijksteel in the first half.

When asked which decision frustrated him most, Warnock replied: “Where do you want to start?

“I think with ten minutes gone, Manning took Dijksteel out and not one of the four officials saw it, and it ended up him coming off injured. He’s deliberately kicked out at him and has taken him down.

“Bola’s goal is a certain goal, it’s either a penalty to us or a certain goal, but because the kid dives he gives it as if they’re diving.

“He gets the ball Bolasie so it should be a penalty or a goal, where do you go from there? How do I not come on here and not get fined, it’s just the worst afternoon for many, many weeks.

“We have had a few of these, you saw the penalty the other night at Stoke City, never a penalty in a million years and they won the game so by that reckoning they will get promoted if they get the right referees.”

On Swansea’s winning penalty Warnock added: “I think the fourth official gave it because he was the nearest man to it in the 90 whatever minute.

“If you aren’t sure you don’t give it.”

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