Saturday 16 August 2014 18:26, UK
Gus Poyet bemoaned the decision to award West Bromwich Albion a penalty following Sunderland’s 2-2 draw at The Hawthorns.
Sunderland were leading 1-0 thanks to Lee Cattermole’s fantastic early strike when referee Neil Swarbrick ruled that Victor Anichebe had been fouled by Valentin Roberge.
There appeared to be only minimal contact between the pair as Anichebe fell to the floor and Poyet felt that the referee had blown his whistle to book the West Brom player.
Saido Berahino scored from the spot and made it 2-1 to West Brom in the second half, leaving Sunderland to need a late Sebastian Larsson equaliser and leaving Poyet upset by the penalty call.
Asked if he had been disappointed to go in level at half-time, Poyet told Sky Sports: “With the incident I was quite disappointed.
“I was not expecting to come here and even try to speak about a referee’s decision.”
Questioned on whether it was a soft decision, he added: “Soft. We are not playing football to give soft decisions. Everybody in the stadium thought he was going to give a yellow card to give Anichebe.
“After that I don’t know what happened, but it is not the way I wanted to start the Premier League.
“I don’t want to talk about referees. I want to talk about football.”
Poyet was pleased with the performance of his team in the second half as they battled back to secure a point.
He added: “We went for it and had nothing to lose. We were much better in the second half and let us see if we can maintain it.”
