Middlesbrough suffered a late defeat in their clash with promotion-chasing rivals Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday. 

The Swans took the lead through Andre Ayew's 12th goal of the season, but Middlesbrough thought they'd rescued a late point as Sam Morsy equalised for the visitors in stoppage-time.

Swansea were awarded a late penalty once again in this one though, and Ayew stepped up and netted the winner for the second consecutive match.

But that wasn't the main talking point from a Middlesbrough perspective, as they were denied an equaliser earlier in the match, as the referee ruled out Marc Bola's goal from distance, after penalising Yannick Bolasie for a 'foul'.

Replays showed that the winger managed to get a touch on the ball to tee up Bola for his stunning strike, and even though Neil Warnock's side earned a point in the end, you would imagine that the Boro boss will still feel aggrieved not to have taken all three points.

Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has issued his verdict on the decision on the day, and labelled it as a 'shocker'.

Middlesbrough are now sat ninth in the Championship table, and are seven points adrift of the play-off positions heading into their final 11 matches of this year's campaign.

Whilst Swansea are just a point adrift of second-placed Watford in the second-tier standings, and they'll fancy their chances of finishing in the automatic promotion places this term.

 

 

The Verdict: 

What a bizarre decision this was.

A the time of watching the incident in real-time, it looked as though Bolasie got a touch on the ball and not the man, and that's exactly what replays later had shown.

I'm not surprised in the slightest to see Lineker label the decision as a 'shocker', and this decision could prove costly in Middlesbrough's quest to try and finish in the top-six.

It wasn't the only decision that didn't go their way, as the winning penalty was another odd decision by the referee on the day.