Sunderland boss blasts referee saying he 'was not man enough' in Stoke defeat

Tony Mowbray admitted Sunderland could not use the referee as an excuse for the hammering against Stoke, but he was still very annoyed by the referee.

Although the game finished a 5-1 defeat, referee Jeremy Simpson appeared to disregard the rules entirely when the game was goalless, with the opening goal resulting from it.

There was a clash of heads between Stoke goalkeeper Matija Šarkić and his own defender and Sunderland had the ball when Simpson stopped play so they could get attention.

The defender left the pitch, but Simpson inexplicably restarted play by giving the ball to Sarkic, who then gave it to the defender who had just re-joined play, who promptly started the move from which Stoke opened the scoring.

Mowbray was so perplexed that he came into the pitch at half time to quiz the referee on why he had made such a bizarre decision, and was booked for his trouble.

Speaking after the game, Mowbray explained: “If it had been 1-1 or 2-1, the narrative would have been about the ref, wouldn't it? It would have been the guy in the middle - again!

"Every week we sit here and talk about the guy in the middle. I just wanted an explanation from him.

"I don't mind him flashing his yellow card at me - why he's not man enough to have a talk as we are coming off the pitch, I'm not sure what's wrong with the guy.

“I just wanted him to explain why he had dropped the ball at their goalkeeper's feet when the game had run on for a good five, six, seven, eight seconds, and we had possession of the ball in midfield.

"Why wasn't the ball dropped in midfield with us, or at least tell them to give us the ball back. I'm not sure if he was in control of the game, to be honest.

"But I don't want to change the narrative. It's not about the referee. What I don't like is just that you can't talk to them or ask them a question.

"It's not that I'm going up f-ing and blinding and screaming in his face, I just wanted him to tell me why he dropped the ball where he did. He might say 'if Mr Mowbray had read the Laws of the Game, this is why', fair enough.

"I just wanted an answer but he wouldn't talk and he flashed a yellow card."

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