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Attwell at it again

Hucknall Ram

By Hucknall Ram
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Hucknall Ram

Hucknall Ram

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Bruce baffled by Attwell

Steve Bruce was forced to bite his tongue after being left dumbfounded by referee Stuart Attwell during Sunderland's impressive 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield.

The home side took the lead in controversial circumstances as Fernando Torres seized on Michael Turner's free-kick and rolled the ball to Dirk Kuyt to slot home early on.

The Black Cats were incensed as they felt Turner was merely knocking the ball back to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet for him to restart play, but Attwell, after consulting with his assistant, allowed the goal to stand.

Bruce's men responded superbly and forged ahead with a brace from Darren Bent, his first from the penalty spot after Christian Poulsen was penalised for handball, and the second a header from Nedum Onuoha's cross.

But the visitors had to settle for a point as Liverpool hit back through captain Steven Gerrard and were hanging on somewhat through seven minutes of injury-time.

But it was Attwell's initial decision which left Bruce shaking his head and choosing his words with great care to avoid a misconduct charge from the Football Association.

Stupid goal

He said: "If Michael Turner had taken the free-kick from where he was, it was 25 yards from the incident where the free-kick was supposed to be taken from, and I think everyone in the ground realised that too.

"To be fair to the referee, I don't think he's seen it, I think he had his back to it. But he put his whistle to his mouth three times. If he is in doubt then he should have given the free-kick to be taken in the right position.

"I think everybody in the ground - bar nobody - thought that Michael Turner hadn't taken the free-kick.

"I thought now with the intervention of the fourth official, surely they have got to get it right between them all with a bit of common sense. That's all we're going to talk about now is this stupid goal.

"You all witnessed it, he has got it wrong. After that, the way the team performed was fantastic. It's a shame, because we should be talking about Sunderland rather than the performance of the referee again."

Baffled

Bruce was also left baffled by Attwell's decision to book Gerrard for a second-half clash with Danny Welbeck, when the Reds skipper caught the Sunderland forward with his raised arm.

"I know if it had been Lee Cattermole he would have been sent off," Bruce said. "If he gives a yellow card, it's a strange one."

The Black Cats boss was keen to praise the display of defender Titus Bramble, who put a difficult week off the field behind him to produce an excellent display in central defence.

He added: "He has played well for us all season. Titus always takes two steps forward and one back and he has to learn from that, which he will do. But his performance today was magnificent. Totally magnificent."

http://origin.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11695_6400722,00.html

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Terrymalloy

Terrymalloy

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Gotta say as much as I think Atwell is a clown, I think this time he deserves some sympathy. The Sunderland player hit the ball back from a dead ball free kick situation,, how many times are you allowed to touch/hit it ? And where was the keeper if he was meant to be taking it ?

Nah,players approach free licks far too casually now and this is a bit of a wake up call. It reminded me of Best scoring that goal when he crept up on the keeper (think it was Banks ) but the ref disallowed (wrongly) that .

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