Nigel Pearson criticised the referee for denying Bristol City a clear penalty in the second half but claimed his side suffered from mental fatigue during their 2-0 defeat at Swansea.
With seven senior players out injured ahead of the two-week international break and a run of seven games in 22 days, the City manager made three changes to the side that lost at Luton on Wednesday including handing a full league debut to academy prospect Omar Taylor-Clarke in midfield while Zak Vyner was handed the captain's armband for the first time.
After surviving a spell of early pressure, the visitors fell behind through Liam Cullen on 34 minutes when his strike across goal went under the arm of goalkeeper Max O'Leary. City found it difficult to create meaningful opportunities despite getting themselves into good attacking positions.
Pearson felt his side's best opportunity should have come from the penalty spot in the second half when Ben Cabango handled Andi Weimann's flick inside the area. Referee Jeremy Simpson turned down protests leaving the City bench incensed on the touchline.
"His arm is in the air and the ball hits him," Pearson said after the game. "The assistant is looking straight at it, the referee is doing what he does and the fourth official is burying his head in his hands and their bench are laughing as well.
"We lost 2-0 and we didn't get it, I think I've spoken enough this season about our friends who patrol the pitch in a different colour. It's becoming a bit boring, to be honest with you."
"We've had two, wow," Pearson added with a hint of sarcasm after City's 469-day wait for a penalty. "We should have had three since though, but never mind. I thought Swansea played well and they deserved to win."
Shortly after, Olivier Ntcham put the game to bed when he fired low into the corner after Morgan Whittacker beat Jay Dasilva at the back post from a cross. Pearson added: "The first goal is a disappointing one because we could have put more pressure on the ball and we've probably just run out of steam at the wrong time.
"It's been a tough week for us, two defeats on the road but there are still lots of positives just because of our reliance on some really young performers who have been outstanding today.
"Credit to them, they needed to get some sort of response after a tough period. They came out quickly against us and had to work pretty hard but I thought we defended well and intelligence too and played our way into the game."
When asked whether O'Leary could have done better with the opening goal, he added: "No, we didn’t have any pressure on the ball, you’ve got to remember when a ball is a reverse ball that is hit first time on the run and goes across a goalkeeper, a goalkeeper is moving in the opposite direction before his sets off.
"It’s a clever finish, my opinion on where the route cause is, is not him. It’s also important to reflect on, we just want to talk about the game, the games one thing to talk about, and the two games we should’ve done better in both of them, and we had opportunities to do better in both of them.
"But the context of where we are with the group of players we have; I’m reasonably satisfied that players within our squad have made shifts in the right direction."
SIGN UP: For our daily Robins newsletter, bringing you the latest from Ashton Gate
READ NEXT
