Steve Bruce blasted the referee for what he deemed as a failure to dismiss Spurs hero, Heurelho Gomes in Sunderland’s defeat to Tottenham.
Despite Bent seeming to be heading away from goal, Bruce was disappointed that the Brazilian stopper was not given his marching orders for what he viewed as a goal scoring opportunity.
Gomes was only booked and dusted himself off to save Bent’s poor penalty and Bruce decided to focus on the performance of the referee, as opposed to his side failing to convert any of the large number of chances they carved out.
“For me the goalkeeper’s denied him a goalscoring opportunity, so I can’t go along with the referee’s explanation to me which he was going away from goal. That’s a load of nonsense.
“I think he’s taken the ball around him. If you look at where the ball goes, it doesn’t even go out of play, so Bent for me gets on the end of it and yes there mightbe somebody on the line, but I would fancy him to score when he goes round the ‘keeper in the situation.
“Now it might have been a different result, the reserve goalkeeper might have come on and saved it, but we would have been playing against ten men with half an hour to go, so that would have given us a huge advantage.
“I have to question if that had been the Stadium of Light, we might have got a different decision.”
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