Sunderland 1 - 0 Liverpool: Beaten by a beach ball

Published on Saturday 17 October 2009 23:38

SUNDERLAND manager Steve Bruce admitted one of the most controversial goals ever seen in the Premier League should not have stood, but he was not going let it spoil his night.

This Barclays Premier League victory came courtesy of Darren Bent's eighth goal of the season, which flew past goalkeeper Jose Reina after hitting a beach ball which had been thrown on to the pitch by a Liverpool fan.

Bruce revealed he was later told that Bent's strike should have been disallowed and that play should have been restarted with a drop ball. Few could have blamed Rafa Benitez had his reaction to the decision been a furious one, but the Liverpool manager offered a philosophical response before going on to demonstrate his own misunderstanding of the law that should have been applied.

You won't find any reference to beach balls in the laws of the game, but the section that applies to stray footballs is as close as it gets. "If an extra ball enters the field of play during the match, the referee must stop the match only if it interferes with play," reads the ruling. "Play must be restarted by a dropped ball in the position where the match ball was at the time when the match was stopped, unless play was stopped inside the goal area, in which case the referee drops the ball on the goal area line parallel to the goal line at the point nearest to where the ball was located when play was stopped."

The pivotal moment in the match came when Bent met Andy Reid's fifth-minute cross and fired towards goal. Reina looked to have it covered, until the ball hit the beach ball at the edge of the six -yard box, and to the goalkeeper's horror, span past him and into the net.

Bruce said: "Listen, I thought it was a deflection off a player. I have to say when I have just seen it there, if anybody knew that rule – that it is supposed to be a drop ball – then you are a saddo. They have got it on telly with the guy who threw it on and it's got Liverpool crests all over it. What a shame."

Liverpool's players protested, but while they could consider themselves unfortunate in that instance, there was little doubt Sunderland deserved to win the game.

Benitez said: "It's a very technical question. It could be a goal, it's difficult to say. In this case, it has to be a goal. These things can happen in a lot of games. It was a bad situation for us – it was in the middle (of the goal] and it was very influential. But we didn't play well, that is the main thing for me."

Bruce, who saw Kenwyne Jones and Lee Cattermole both carried off injured, became embroiled in a furious touchline debate with Benitez when the Spaniard apparently complained about the length of time for which Jones was treated on the pitch. However, Bruce had calmed down by the time he conducted his press conference.

Bruce said: "It was handbags. It's all over, it's done. You do things in the heat of the moment which, when you look back at it, you think, 'Maybe I shouldn't have done that', but there you go."

Benitez gave his point of view, and suggested Bruce had inflamed the situation.

The Liverpool boss said: "I didn't have any argument with him (Bruce]. I was just asking for time because three or four times they were on the ground – in 10 minutes, three or four times, the game was stopped. I was talking with the fourth official and he (Bruce] was coming and he wanted to argue with me. I was surprised because I was talking with the fourth official about the time."

On another day, Bent might have claimed at least a hat-trick after repeatedly finding space and time inside the box, and it was mainly thanks to Reina and the woodwork that he did not.

By contrast, Liverpool, without the injured Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, offered little as an attacking force until deep into seven minutes of added time when Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon had to make an excellent double save from Dirk Kuyt and substitute David Ngog.