Hopkin fumes after Payne ‘goal’ ruled out

David Hopkin was furious Bradford City were denied an equaliser against Sunderland after the officials failed to spot the ball had crossed the line.

Jack Ross, keen to focus on his side’s important win in front of a record 46,039 crowd, had yet to watch back the incident but said Sunderland had been on the receiving end of plenty of bad decisions so far this season.

Sunderland, leading 1-0 thanks to Aiden McGeady’s first half strike, were on the receiving end of a huge let-off in the closing stages of the game.

Jack Payne struck one from range but there seemed to be little danger to Jon McLaughlin, who spilled the ball and had to edge back towards goal to try and prevent it trickling over the line.

Replays showed the ball had clearly gone in but referee Darren England waved play on after assistant Mark Dwyer, who was on that side of the pitch, failed to spot the ball had crept in.

Hopkinandamemberofhiscoaching staff were booked for their demonstrations on the touchline.

Ross said: “I would be disappointed if that was all we focused on from the game as I thought my team was good.

“I would also say that I haven’t seen it again yet but if it is over the line then it is a bit of fortune we needed to see out the result then I will take it.

“There has been a few occasions this season where I would argue we haven’t been on the right end of that bit of fortune.

“Naturally it will be a talking point but for me, there are large number of things that I would look at in the game other than that.”

Fuming Bradford City boss David Hopkin said: “Even with Jon’s body language, he is stuck in the net like a salmon, I could see it was in.

“The decision is poor, the whole stadium could see it was in. Great credit to my players, before that we had a stonewall penalty too that we were denied,madeonemistakeinthefirsthalf and it cost us three points.”