Bruce: ‘We should be talking about the game not the ref’

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce was left fuming with referee Stuart Attwell as his blunder allowed Liverpool to score the opener at Anfield.

Failing to realise Michael Turner was letting Simon Mignolet take a free kick, Attwell allowed Fernando Torres to pounce on the pass and set up Dirk Kuyt.

Bruce told talkSPORT: “If Michael Turner had taken the free kick and hit it forward from where it was, it would have been 25-yards from the incident where the free kick was supposed to be taken from. I think everyone in the ground realised that too.

 “To be fair to the referee, I don’t think he’s seen it, I think he had his back to it. He put his whistle to his mouth three times and I think everyone in the ground bar nobody knew that Michael Turner hadn’t taken the free kick, but there you go.

“If he’s in doubt or whatever, which he knew he was otherwise why put the whistle to his mouth, then he should have given the free kick to be taken in the right position and then we’re not talking about this. We’re talking about the performance of our team, which after that I thought we were terrific.

“He’s got it wrong, He’s got it wrong. After that the way the team performed was fantastic and I couldn’t fault them. It’s a shame because we should be sitting here talking about a Sunderland win rather than the performance of a referee again and how often do we have it. It’s all going to be that again just like with the beach ball 12 months ago.”