SUNDERLAND head coach Gus Poyet fears video technology would make football "boring" despite seeing defender Wes Brown cleared of a red card offence.
A review of footage of the incident which saw the 35-year-old sent off for a challenge on striker Radamel Falcao at Manchester United on Saturday prompted an independent regulatory commission to overturn match referee Roger East's decision on Monday afternoon, leaving Brown free to face Hull on Tuesday evening. Team-mate John O'Shea, whose intervention looked to have felled the United frontman, also escaped punishment.
However, Poyet is not in favour of the introduction of replays in games, which might have spared his team from having to play the final 25 minutes at Old Trafford with only 10 men. He said: "Football is so nice because there are issues and there are ways of dealing with these situations, and we can comment and we can talk about it.
"If football becomes mathematics, like everything is going to be perfection, I think it's going to be a bit more boring, that's my opinion.
"Even then, there are going to be controversies somehow because I remember the Jozy Altidore penalty at Chelsea last year - I was listening to the television and the two pundits on TV were not agreeing after watching five replays, so how long are you going to delay a game? How many hours is a difficult game going to last?
"Is that what we want, really? Me, no. Maybe I am a little bit old-fashioned. Goals are so important that it's something that's very nice now with the technology, but the rest, I would leave it like it is.
"I know others want technology, but I am sure that if the technology goes against them five times in a row, they are not going to be very happy."
Confirmation of Brown's successful appeal came from the Football Association minutes before Poyet conducted his pre-match press conference ahead of the vital trip to the KC Stadium. A statement read: "An independent regulatory commission has today upheld a claim of wrongful dismissal in relation to Wes Brown.
"The Sunderland defender was dismissed in the game against Manchester United on Saturday 28 February 2015 for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Therefore, his one-match suspension has been withdrawn with immediate effect."
Poyet was understandably delighted to see common sense prevail ahead of a game which could have a major say in how the remainder of the club's season pans out.
He said: "I am very, very pleased. It's the way that we all like to live, by the rules. Sometimes the rules are not very clear, but we try to understand the rules, like anyone else.
"But this one was very clear, so I am pleased that everything finished well, so thanks to everybody, especially the club. They did a very good job in those hours over the weekend when you are supposed to be relaxing.
"It's good news as well. In a very important game tomorrow, we need Wes."
Sunderland head for Humberside without a win in four attempts in the Barclays Premier League and sitting uncomfortably just three points clear of the drop zone in 16th place.
Poyet, who guided the Black Cats to a remarkable escape last season, has no intention of having to repeat those heroics this time around, and has challenged his players to make the most of the clash with the Tigers and the home game against struggling Aston Villa which follows it on March 14.
He said: "It's up to us. The next two games will mark what is going to happen at the end of the season, and it's up to us to go and win both of them and then put some space between us and the bottom three.
"You can't always rely on the other results going for you. That's not the way to look forward."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article