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If you didn't see on Sunday during the match between Stoke and Swansea the home side were given a dodgy looking penalty after Victor Moses seemed to go down a bit easily. As a Stoke fan I've obviously got a bit of a biased opinion on the situation. Garry Monk, the Swansea manager, came out and labelled Moses a cheat, and it all seems to have escalated rapidly.
Also the penalty awarded against Shawcross was ridiculous, every defender holds during set pieces, if they're all going to be given as penalties each match would end up in double figures, but that's a rant for another day.

What are your thoughts on the referees decision, the reaction from the Garry Monk and should he be fined by the FA for his reaction?

Every match would not end 10-9 because defenders would stop cheating by holding at set pieces if more penalties were rightly given in these situations.

Moses definitely cheated. Swansea definitely deserved their penalty.

No controvesy as far as I'm concerned.

100% this.

+1. Really winds me up when people justify cheating because everyone does it.

+1

The fact is, with regard to the Shawcross penalty incident, referees don't give penalties for incidents like it, so why penalise every 1 in 100 for it occurring?

Just last night there were countless incidents exactly the same, e.g. Lescott in this picture.

And you only need to watch this 6 second clip to realise how ridiculously inconsistent the ruling is:

https://vine.co/v/ObAiTBiWzL2

As for Moses I don't think going down soft is right, but how many times do you see players go down like he did after minimal contact, but within the next day it's forgotten about. I just think this incident has been blown way out of proportion.

Baldock is right.  Whether or not the penalty against Shawcross was technically correct, what managers, players and supporters want is consistency. 

The problem is that people complain about the penalty that was given. What people should be complaining about is the loads that should be given but aren't.

That's clearly a penalty (if the ball is in play).

If it isn't in play Lescott should be booked.

One weekend of loads of penalties would stop defenders doing it - but if you had to start with anyone, Stoke and Ryan Shawcross is a decent place to go from.

But in that picture what is Lescott supposed to do if the forward has run into his space apart from put his arms up?  Step out of the way?  Nut him?

But people do complain, just not on the same scale for the manager to go out and call the holding defender a cheat though. It seems to be one of those fans get so frustrated about as these incidents really could change a game, but referees seem to turn a blind eye to it.

Exactly, the whole situation is a joke.

The Shawcross situation was a clear penalty.

I had to laugh at the Stoke chairman on Five Live yesterday moaning about Monk.

He was basically saying that Moses had contact with a Swansea player so he was very upset with the comments.

There seems to be an acceptance that if there is an physical contact in the box its OK for players to go down, no matter how slight it is.

Until the authorities decide to give large fines and ban players for a few games for diving, we will be faced with this constant cheating in football.

Surely a statement from the head of referees saying clamping down on holding in the area will start from now, rather than go and victimise 1 player/ club when the other 19 in the league have probably commited the same offence that weekend. Surely it needs to be consistent across all clubs, not starting with one club and going from there

Yep - consistency is key

If the game wasn't all about who can cheat the best, I might actually start watching football.

It does make me enjoy American Sports a lot more, where a video replays/ reviews are quite common. It's just very irritating having to stay up into the early matches to watch the odd game!

I am all for consistency as well. 

I haven't seen the incident as never watched the game but can also understand why a supporter of any team would feel agrieved when this carry on goes on every week. 

The holding and pulling at set pieces is probably my biggest gripe in the game. 

Also the "there was contact" angle really pisses me off, that penalty Lampard got at the weekend was ridiculous.  But it comes as no surprse that players are only to happy to go down given the sums of money involved in the game today. 

I have been to a few junior matches lately and the difference is night and day.  Try going down in a heap for "contact" and you'd end up flat out minutes later.  Real mens football.

https://vine.co/v/ObrMrpZjMgQ

You can see why the ref gave the penalty from his view.

The ref spoke to Shawcross immediately prior to the corner being taken about holding Bony. He can have no complaints.
In last nights game Berahino was clearly caught by Jones in the box. Berahino stumbled but didn't go down and no penalty was given. When players see that, of course they will go to ground easier, as they won't get a penalty if they don't.