Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has accused West Ham of play-acting following Saturday's 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light.
Bruce's anger centred on the incident involving Herita Ilunga and Kenwyne Jones that saw the Trinidadian striker instantly dismissed by referee Andre Marriner for shoving the full-back to the ground.The Sunderland boss accused the African left-back - who has only recently recovered from a jaw injury - and the club's medical team of over-egging the pudding for their reaction to the incident.
"Kenwyne's wrong - he's pushed him. We know the law of the game," an angry Bruce told the BBC. "But is there any need to go down the way he does?
"Then I see a medical man with an ice pack on his eye as if he's got battered... there's nothing there, he pushed him in the chest.
"All the theatrics, we don't want to see it. We've got a marvellous spectacle here and that's one thing we've got to guard against. We all know Kenwyne was wrong, I'm not going to try and defend it - however the boy's falling around the place as if he's been poleaxed. We don't want to see that.
"Referees have a difficult job but the players have got to look at themselves and say 'come on, we've got to stop this nonsense'. Feigning injury and rolling aorund the pitch when there's nothing wrong with you."
Bruce - who conveniently failed to comment on Steed Malbranque's dive that led to Sunderland's first goal - admitted that the Hammers could have won the game in the closing stages, but claimed that for much of the time it was his team who appeared to have the numerical advantage.
"It was a breathtaking spectacle," he added. "2-0 down is always difficult in the Premier League against any team. To go with ten men and the way they did it was absolutely magnificent. At times you would have thought it was West Ham with ten men.
"Fatigue started to come into it in the last ten minutes. West Ham had more of the game in the last ten minutes than they did in the whole of the game probably.
"But I couldn't complain."
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