Swansea City Football Club News

• Nickname:Swans
• Founded:1912
• Manager:Brendan Rodgers

• Ground:The Liberty Stadium
• Capacity:20,000

Irate Sousa slams 'smart' Iron

26 Aug 2009 - 12:35:49

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Swansea City manager Paulo Sousa insists he did not try to get Tuesday's Carling Cup second clash against Scunthorpe United abandoned.

The Swans had already had three players sent off and seen Stephen Dobbie forced to leave the pitch with a rib problem when Besian Idrizaj limped out of the action with a knee injury.

A match is abandoned if a team has only six players on the pitch, but referee James Linington forced Idrizaj to carry on playing, to Sousa'a annoyance.

Garry Monk, Gorka Pintado and Angel Rangel had all been dismissed in a tempestuous game.

A livid Sousa said: "The referee forced us to put him (Idrizaj) back on. I don't like to speak about referees - everyone can see what happened and I need to be careful.

"I could say some words and get punished. I don't want to talk about the reds, I will say only that we may appeal them depending on what the referee's report says.

"But we've been provoked and we reacted in a bad way. We try to play football and the players who want to play football need to be protected.

"Our opponents were smart - you cannot be provoked all the time and be kicked all the time without a yellow card or a foul.

"We would be happy to have that referee again if he has a better day. Everyone has a bad day."