Referees targeting Black Cats, says Lee Cattermole

Dec 21 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

LEE Cattermole believes referees need to "wise up" after Sunderland left Manchester City feeling they are being increasingly "targeted" by referees.

The Black Cats are the Premier League’s worst disciplinary offenders but they were roughly treated by referee Andre Marriner at the City of Manchester Stadium – with Michael Turner receiving a harsh red card for an aerial challenge on Gareth Barry.

Sunderland will appeal that decision but it did not dull the anger of Cattermole or Bruce, who said his team “may as well be playing netball” if their physical approach continues to be punished so severely.

The Black Cats midfielder was left livid about the performance of Marriner and the linesmen who, with echoes of Sir Alex Ferguson’s recent complaint against Alan Wiley, he reckons was not physically fit enough to keep up with play.

Although accepting that Sunderland had defended poorly and that ultimately led to the Black Cats’ defeat, he was not happy with the contribution of the officials.

“Defensively you can not afford to concede four goals in a game. It kills you but there was a lot of bad refereeing decisions,” he said.

“I thought all the officials were sloppy. The linesman – I don’t think he is in physical condition to keep up with play. We got a penalty against us, Turner’s sending off – there was a lot of disappointing stuff.

“You look at Kenwyne Jones’ sending off at home in the West Ham game. This was the same referee.

“It depends who you push, I suppose. In that game Kenwyne made the mistake of pushing an Italian lad and he went and rolled around. If you pushed me like that I wouldn’t even move, if you know what I mean.

“The referees have to wise up to things like that.

“That is two sendings off in two games now. Turns never took his eye off the ball, he went and headed the ball, it went into the stands. There was nothing wrong with it. You can’t jump without using your arms. I don’t see a problem with it.

“He wouldn’t have got sent off at the Stadium of Light but here you’ve got the bench up, the crowd making a noise, everyone is running around the ref – it makes it hard for the ref and it probably does put the pressure on him. But he’s a Premier League referee, it’s up to him.”

Cattermole said that Sunderland’s players felt “devastated” after falling to another defeat on their travels – their eighth game without a win away from the Stadium of Light.

But although defensively Sunderland continue to struggle, there were plenty of positives to take away from a thrilling 4-3 reverse.

“We worked our socks off. We feel sorry for the fans who turned up yet again – we got a great following and we let them down,” he said. “We’re just not managing to put points on the board away from home. But there are positives to take – we just need to tighten up at the back.”

One positive for Cattermole was lasting a full 90 minutes, which sets him up for the arduous festive programme. The all-action midfielder, skipper for the day on Saturday, believes he is not far from peak condition.

“I’m fine. For three weeks I’ve been working really, really hard with the physios. The gaffer gave me a week off and I went to Dubai and since then I’ve been having five or six really, really tough sessions,” he said.