Cats boss on yellows, reds, a terrible start and game end domination
PHIL Parkinson will take a second look at George Dobson’s red card against Bristol Rovers before deciding whether to launch an appeal.
Dobson was shown a straight red card by referee Anthony Backhouse in injury-time as the Black Cats drew 1-1 at the Stadium of Light, and is facing a three-match ban that would rule him out of the trip to O x f o rd United n e x t weekend, the home g am e aga ins t Peterborough, and the visit to Charlton at the beginning of October.
Parkinson says Dobson won the ball in his challenge with Jayden Mitchell-lawson, but admits that that does not automatically prevent a referee deciding to produce the red card.
“He won the ball and I thought at the time it
was going to be a yellow, but the manner of the challenge meant it was one of those that is sometimes interpreted as a red,” said Parkinson.
“I’ll have a look at it again tonight and make a decision [whether to appeal] after that.”
If Sunderland decide not to appeal, or if they appeal and are unsuccessful in getting the ban overturned, Parkinson is not short of midfielders to call on, with Josh Scowen and Grant Leadbitter both on the bench yesterday.
Parkinson said: “It’s frustrating for George but it gives someone else an opportunity.
“Josh and Grant both played well the other night and both will be available for selection next week.”
If Sunderland felt Dobson’s red card was harsh, it perhaps balanced out an earlier incident when Bailey Wright escaped a second yellow card by the skin of his teeth.
Wright, who had been booked in the first half for a foul on Brandon Hanlan, was penalised at the beginning of the second period for another foul on the same player.
Mr Backhouse pulled out the yellow card and it looked like that would be the end of Wright’s afternoon, but eventually the official decided a final warning was sufficient.
Parkinson said: “Normally in those situations, a referee would give a player on a yellow card another opportunity because it was an innocuous type of challenge but, yeah, on another day he could have got a red.”
Sunderland made
a
nightmare
start with goalkeeper Lee Burge conceding a penalty inside two minutes, which was converted by Luke Leahy.
The Black Cats went on to dominate much of the match but had to wait until the 83rd minute until Chris Maguire levelled – although Max Power twice went close to a winner, seeing one strike brilliantly tipped on to the post by the keeper, and a few minutes later seeing a shot cleared off the line.
Parkinson criticised Rovers for timewasting throughout the game – something that
was borne out by the eight minutes of added time at the end – and said Sunderland should have been “out of sight” given the chances they created.
Parkinson said: “It was a terrible start for us. We couldn’t have started any worse, against a team that just came to timewaste and obviously that is helped by the fact that when the ball goes into the stands we haven’t got ballboys, and no one knows what the rule is – can you get the ball quickly, sometimes it was allowed and sometimes it wasn’t.
“After the terrible start we became a bit frantic after that but once we got into our rhythm and started playing, we got better and better as the game wore on.
“Really in the second half we completely dominated the game and should have won it comfortably.
“We got the goal through Chris and we also had several other chances to get the goal back but there was some poor finishing but some good goalkeeping as well, and the save from Max’s shot kept them in the game.
“I don’t think we could have done much more in the second half in terms of the way we played, but obviously the final moment of quality needs to be better because with the amount of dominance we had, we really should have been out of sight.”
Parkinson added: “In terms of the poor start, we gave a free-kick away, we didn’t deal with the free-kick, and we gave a soft penalty away – it wasn’t as though for 15 minutes we were on the back foot and Bristol were moving the ball around and causing problems.
“It was just that one moment of the free-kick and not dealing with the set piece.
“It created a frantic 15 minutes when we were too hurried on the ball and we didn’t play with enough calmness.
“As the half wore on though, we started to play better and got into some good positions and in the second half we just needed to improve on that in the second period and I felt we did.”
Really in the second half we completely
dominated the game and should have won it comfortably
Phil Parkinson