Roberto Martinez says the penalty decision that split the Welsh derby was an emotional one by the referee
The Swansea City boss was clearly not happy to see that his side had been denied the three points that would have propelled them right back into the play off mix in a pulsating game at Ninian Park.
Roberto had believed that Joe Allen's goal was enough to send them back down the M4 with all three points in the bag until the referee awarded the penalty to the amazement of the travelling support.
Speaking after the game, Roberto said “At that moment of the game it was an emotional decision, Mike said it was because the defender’s arms were around the striker – if that’s the case there would have been nine or 10 penalties during the game.
“When players are fighting for position like that you are going to have contact – but at that moment of the game it was an emotional decision.
“Myself and Dave Jones have been working all week to avoid emotions coming into the performance, then it’s disappointing when it happens with the referee.
“In atmospheres like this sometimes you don’t do what you should. Sometimes you don’t have coolness and composure to make the judgement.
“I think someone said it was the softest penalty they’ve seen all season – well that is a soft way to describe it.
“To drop two points with that decision is hard on the players who didn’t deserve it. I don’t like to speak about referees or referee’s decisions because I believe these things level out over a season. But now it is one or two times too many and the players didn’t deserve it and the fans didn’t deserve it
“It was an emotional decision and it hurts.
“You don’t want to see incidents like that,” said Martinez in reference to Dean being hit by a coin in the first half. “If you look at the overall performance of referee, maybe he was affected by it.
“It was an emotional decision and there must be a reason behind it. I’d like to believe it’s nothing to do with what happened.
“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement,” he said. “The players were heartbroken in the dressing room because it is tough enough to come to a place like Ninian Park for a derby with all the emotion involved.
“Then a decision likes that to take three points of us is hard to take.
“Ashley is really low – players know when it is a penalty and this one was black and white.
“They all feel they’ve been robbed, they feel disappointed because it feels like a defeat.
“We always expected Cardiff to put us under pressure, but I thought we defended well and took our opportunities to go forward.
“We felt in control, we had to ride the pressure out, but that will always happen and then we did the hardest thing of scoring the goal to put us back ahead with a fantastic strike.
“And we can be proud of the performance because Cardiff are a fantastic side and we wish them all the best in the last few games to finish as high up as possible – but here the points should have been ours.
“Two points here would have been huge,” he added. “But we have to be realistic – although I always focus on the performance, at this stage of the season the points tally is affected.
“But we have five games to try and get 15 points to get us into the play-offs – there is no margin for error, but it is a great challenge for us. We are improving as a squad and being ourselves in an atmosphere like this one and now we must look to finish as high as we can.
“We know we can finish strongly this season if the players can perform the way they did here.
“It is a challenge and one we can look forward to. We are in the right fight – and we have a better chance of winning it than we did in July.”
Roberto's comments were taken from the Wales Online website - you can read the full article by clicking here http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballnation/swansea-city-fc/2009/04/06/roberto-martinez-blasts-emotional-ref-mike-dean-over-penalty-call-91466-23318587/