Quinn: I saw red at City
Niall Quinn says tomorrow's opponents Manchester City provided him with one of the worst moments of his season.
The Sunderland chairman was at Eastlands in December when Michael Turner was sent off challenging Gareth Barry for a ball – referee Andre Marriner dismissing the centre-half for what he saw as an elbow on the England midfielder.
And Quinn says he was so stunned by the decision that he could not contain his anger.
"I think it's the first time I've actually found myself swearing in the directors' box. I just couldn't help myself because I couldn't believe Michael had been sent off for what was a perfectly fair challenge.
"I apologised to the Manchester City people afterwards for my swearing and thankfully they understood and accepted my apology. But it was a decision that really affected us.
"We lost arguably our key defender for three important games and then what really got to me was that when we appealed the decision – and we felt confident we would succeed – the ruling came back that the ban would be increased to four games because they considered it frivolous.
"We were absolutely incredulous.
"The same day we received the ruling that the ban would be increased, we also received a copy of the referee assessor's report which confirmed that they thought it was a bit of a joke decision to send Michael off!"
* Full story in tonight's Football Echo
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Weather for Sunderland
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
