Stoke City manager Mark Hughes was far from happy after he witnessed his side lose 1-0 to Sunderland at the Stadium Of Light and he felt aggrieved by some of the refereeing decisions during the match. The Potters lost Steven Nzonzi early in the second half as they trailed 1-0. The Stoke man picked up his second yellow after a foul on Altidore, which upset the manager. Hughes said:
"Once again we've been hurt by poor refereeing decisions. He's unlucky as I feel Altidore went down very easily, there was minimal contact. It's outrageous from my point of view."
Hughes was extremely unhappy as he feels his side were the better of the two on the night but they came away with nothing to show for it, slipping closer towards the dreaded drop zone. He said:
"We're disappointed that our performance got no result. We had a bad period for 15 minutes and unfortunately we conceded. I feel we controlled the game with 11 men and even with 10. The best side didn't win today."
The Stoke manager then stated there had been no move for Sunderlands Lee Cattermole, who missed tonights clash due to injury. Hughes said:
"There's been no bid from us for Lee Cattermole. As it stands the possibility of getting more players in isn't high."
Sunderland manager Gus Poyet was feeling unwell after the match so assistant Charlie Oatway took the press conference and spoke of how important the result was. He said:
"It's fantastic and a long time coming. We've wanted to get here from when we first took over. It's a great feeling. You can see the style we want to play. Every game we're improving." "Getting out the bottom 3 and getting those 3 points was hugely important. The 3 points were a big must. It feels like an important moment getting out the bottom three."
Oatwell also spoke about how important Adam Johnson has been to the side recently, grabbing his fifth goal in three games today. He also denied the rumours surrounding Cattermole. He said:
"We needed that bright spark today, thankfully its him. He's played with a knock and grabbed the important goal. Cattermole wasn't worth the risk, he had a knock. It's just the injury, no transfer reason."
The win is Sunderlands first at home since November and it lifts them out of the bottom three for the first time since August. Stoke now sit just two places and three points above the relegation zone.
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
