Steve Cooper revealed Swansea’s players were adamant they were denied a penalty after the 1-0 Championship defeat at Norwich City.

The Swans could find no way past Tim Krul in a dominant second half showing at Carrow Road, and that frustration was compounded when Jake Bidwell tumbled in a far post duel with Max Aarons.

Referee England waved play on and boss Cooper was less than impressed with the officials in a tight tussle that ended with five of his players booked.

“The players are adamant it was a penalty. I don’t want to say too much, but it’s the way it’s going for us at the moment,” said Cooper. “You look at the decisions overall in this game.

“We’ve been up against it recently with these decisions with the officials, but we won’t let it get in the way of our work and what we want to do. I could say a lot but it’s not worth it

“We have to look at ourselves, and this feels a bit raw because of the nature of it with the goal coming so late. We have to take positives out of how we are playing at places like this. We’ll get over it. That is how it is in the Championship. You are going to lose games.

“You can play poorly and win or well and lose. It is tight at the top, not a lot of points separating the teams and I feel it will remain that way for a number of weeks.”

Cooper admitted Swansea must be more ruthless in the final third.

“The result is not deserved but we have to look at us. We are just disappointed not to put the chances away,” he said. “I thought we could have been on the front foot more in the first half and play with a little bit more confidence, but we did that in the second half and there were points up for grabs.

“Tim Krul has made more saves in this game than he probably has all season.

We should have got six points this past week (drawing 1-1 at Brentford). If someone had offered us the chances we created here we would have taken it, but we didn’t put them away, unfortunately.”