Robert Huth believes Mike Dean's decision to send off Stoke team-mate Andy Wilkinson was influenced by the crowd.
Referee Mike Dean "got excited" says Potters defender
Stoke City defender Robert Huth believes referee Mike Dean's decision to send off team-mate Andy Wilkinson at Portsmouth was influenced by the crowd.
The Potters grabbed all three points as Salif Diao netted an injury-time winner in a 2-1 win, despite Wilkinson receiving his marching orders for a second bookable offence.
The Stoke defender harshly received his second yellow card following a tussle with Pompey forward Aruna Dindane, and Huth believes the noisy Fratton Park crowd played their part.
"I thought at the time he was going to give the foul to us," Huth, who scored Stoke's equalising goal in the match, told
The Sentinel.
"The ref got excited when the crowd got on his case and gave the second yellow card, which shocked everyone."
A Frederic Piquionne strike gave the hosts a half-time lead but Huth rose to thump an equalising header on 50 minutes from a Glenn Whelan corner, a set-piece move which he admits the team practise a lot in training.
"We work on it pretty often," said the Germany international. "Sometimes we have had a bit of bad luck in recent times, so it was good it worked out.
"It was not so much placement for me, just a case of getting my head on it."
Ironically, it was two former Pompey players who combined to deny the home side a point, as Ricardo Fuller teed up Diao to heap more misery on the Premier League's basement club.
"Ric has been doing that for the last 10 weeks, working hard up there, especially with one man off for us," said Huth of team-mate Fuller.
"To go and get a goal in the 90-something minute is great."
He added: "Salif is supposed to give us protection, so to pop up with the winner for us is great. He's not a natural finisher, but it's great for him and for us."
