Penalty generosity not Bruce’s script

Sep 28 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

“I only found out afterwards. Here was me thinking Bent had scored a hat-trick. In all seriousness, that won’t happen again.

“I was delighted with him, though. We have bought Bent for a lot of money, and you can already understand why we were delighted to get him.

“When you have that threat, you are always capable of winning a game. But we must improve on the defending, and that doesn’t only mean the defence.” Bruce, who revealed Phil Bardsley was left out because he was ill and brushed aside internet rumours that Michael Turner had a pre-match bust-up with Anton Ferdinand, admitted that he could not make sense of a remarkable game.

He said: “I don’t think any of us can make any sense of it, it was one of those crazy ones. I suppose if you are a neutral you will have seen a decent spectacle, but as a manager it was a bit unreal.

“It is difficult to put into terms, but the one thing I will say is that up front, we have a cutting edge when Bent and Jones are like that. They were always an outlet.” Former Black Cats boss McCarthy, who has now gone 25 Premier League games at the Stadium of Light without a win, felt his team was hard done by.

Wolves felt aggrieved at the decision to award the Black Cats an early penalty, believing midfielder Castillo had won the ball from Bent and not fouled him.

“I don’t know where the swingometer is between pleasing and frustrating, but it would have been swinging so much from side to side t would have been pushed to breaking point,” he said. “It was a harsh scoreline. We really played well, but we made too many mistakes.”