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!
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"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."
In a tight game, the referee's decision might have been a key moment but in the second half Tyrese Campbell and ex-Newcastle United striker Dwight Gayle each scored twice, while Alex Pritchard had briefly brought the score back to 3-1. It was a third straight defeat for the Black Cats - their worst run of the season - and as a result they dropped to tenth in the Championship table, with the gap between themselves and the play-off places now six points.
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