Sunderland boss Steve Bruce claims referee Kevin Friend may have been influenced by the White Hart Lane crowd when he kept Heurelho Gomes on the pitch during the Barclays Premier League defeat to Tottenham.
Friend awarded a penalty when Gomes brought down Darren Bent early in the second half but only produced a yellow card despite the Spurs goalkeeper being the last man, with the Brazil international saving the spot-kick after his reprieve.
Bent's miss was a crucial moment in the game as Sunderland had gained momentum after falling behind to Robbie Keane's early strike.
Tom Huddlestone wrapped up the 2-0 win with a thunderbolt off the crossbar but the talking point surrounded Bent's penalty.
"For me the goalkeeper's denied him a goalscoring opportunity so I can't go along with the referee's explanation to me which was he was going away from goal," Bruce said. "That's a load of nonsense.
"I think he's taken the ball around him. If you look at where the ball goes, it doesn't even go out of play, so Benty for me gets on the end of it, and yes there might be somebody on the line, but I would fancy him to score when he goes round the keeper in that situation.
"Now it might have been a different result, the reserve goalkeeper might have come on and saved it but we would have been playing against 10 men with half an hour to go so that would have given us a huge advantage."
Bruce added: "I have to question if that had been the Stadium of Light we might have got a different decision."
