Sunderland Football Club News

• Nickname:Black Cats
• Founded:1879
• Manager:Martin O'Neill

• Ground:Stadium of light
• Capacity:48,353

McCartney may launch appeal

23 Mar 2009 - 08:10:14

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Sunderland boss Ricky Sbragia could not understand why George McCartney was sent off in the opening stages of Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Manchester City.

The former West Ham star was dismissed for hauling Shaun Wright-Phillips back as the City winger chased a long ball, but Sbragia did not think the incident warranted a red card.

"I'm not so sure it was a sending off," he said. "George has made some sort of contact but the goalkeeper had the ball in his hands and Wright-Phillips was never going to get the ball.

"The referee and linesman hummed and harred and then sent him off and it changed the game completely. Maybe we'll ask them to look at it.

"The game was only 15 minutes old and we had to change it. We went to 4-4-1 and we tried to frustrate them. We thought they might have had a lack of energy due to their travelling back from Denmark.

"We conceded a bad goal from a set-play. You can't afford to give people free headers in the six-yard box.

"We took the gamble and went for it, sticking two up front and we had a couple of half-chances but when it came to the final pass we were lacking.

"It's a test of nerve now. Stoke and Portsmouth had good results over the weekend and we could have done with a point here."