Tony Mowbray was left scratching his head at another baffling refereeing performance - but the Sunderland boss refused to use it as an excuse in the wake of his side's 5-1 humiliation at the hands of Stoke City. Mowbray was furious with referee Jeremy Simpson for his actions in the run-up to Josh Laurent's opening goal five minutes before the break when, following a player receiving treatment for a head injury, Simpson dropped the ball at the Stoke goalkeeper's feet inside the penalty area when Sunderland had been in possession in midfield when the game was stopped, and the visitors immediately broke downfield and scored seconds later.
Mowbray walked calmly onto the pitch to seek an explanation at half-time but Simpson refused to respond, save to brandish the yellow card in his direction, prompting the head coach to say the referee 'was not man enough' to speak to him about the decision. Given the scoreline at full-time, the referee was not the talking point at the end of the game but Mowbray was asked what he thought about the official's input into that first goal.
He said: "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!
