Tony Mowbray reveals what PGMOL told Sunderland after controversial Dan Neil red card

Tony Mowbray says Sunderland received an apology from the game's refereeing body after the controversial defeat to Middlesbrough.

Sunderland and Middlesbrough were locked at 0-0 when Dan Neil was shown a second yellow card for dissent just before the interval, with the visitors going on to win 4-0.

Mowbray was left hugely frustrated with the decision at the time, and says that PGMOL reached out to the club for further discussions during the international break.

The head coach says that the assessor conceded after consulting the audio that the decision was harsh in the context of the rest of the game.

"We had an official apology from the assessors on the referee's performance," Mowbray said.

"[Michael] Proctor is the one who writes the report, who sends the video clips, gives the opinion, and they reply.

"This gentleman [the assessor] asked to come in and he sat in the coaches' office with us all and we went through some clips.

"The fact he came in and said what he said means they feel it was wrong, or really, really, really, harsh for the nature of the game."

Mowbray insisted Neil did not deserve any criticism immediately after the game, and says he has no broader concerns about dissent within the group as Sunderland head to face Stoke City this weekend on their Championship return.

"This is a young team and I don't think they are overly-verbally aggressive to any referee," Mowbray said.

"If I thought there was a problem, I'd address it but I don't think there is a problem.

"I think we should be encouraged to talk to referees and if you want to question one of their decisions, I think that's alright.

"As long as you're not f-ing and blinding and calling him names and using bad language right into his face - obviously that is wrong and has to be stamped down on - but this situation with Dan Neil was not like that.

"He was gesticulating about a foul in a different part of the pitch.

"I genuinely feel the referee didn't realise he had already booked him and thought he'd put a mark on him towards the end of the first half, and then he's realised 'my God, what have I done'.

"I don't know whether that is right, that's just my opinion, because it just seemed so out of character with the game being as it was because he had let go so many potential yellow cards early on, and then that one came out of nowhere."

Mowbray said his team would move on from the incident and that he understood the difficulty of refereeing in such a high-paced environment.

"I have no problem, generally, with any referee," he said.

"The great thing about refereeing in this country is that the integrity is never in question.

"It's a tough job for anybody.

"We find it doing five-a-sides or small-sided games at the end of training - the players moan like hell saying 'it's never a foul, he's dived', 'it's our ball, it's their ball'.

"We know how tough it is.

"Whenever I moan about a referee, I put a bit of thought into it.

"I don't want to be the guy who blames the referee every time we lose, that's not going to be the case and it never has been the case.

"But I do feel there are sometimes some huge decisions that don't go your way, that I can't see the logic in."If I could see the logic of what he [the referee] has done, then fine."