O'Shea disputes first-half penalty decision (From The Northern Echo)

O'Shea disputes first-half penalty decision

8:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in Sport By Steph Clark

JOHN O'SHEA admits Sunderland can only blame themselves for throwing away the lead against Arsenal, but the defender believes it could have been a different story had his side been awarded a first half penalty.

Thierry Henry's 91st minute goal handed Arsenal the win after Aaron Ramsey had cancelled out James McClean's 70th minute opener.

The defeat was a bitter pill for the Black Cats to swallow having more than matched the Gunners throughout proceedings, but that was made even worse by referee Neil Swarbrick's decision not to award the hosts a spot-kick.

Six minutes before the break, Per Mertesacker controlled Jack Colback's cross with his chest, but the centre-back lost control and the ball bounced up and hit his outstretched arm.

Protests erupted around the ground from both supporters and players, but Swarbrick chose to ignore the incident and waved play on.

Despite the fact Sunderland did go on to take the lead in the second half, O'Shea, who continues to captain the side in the absence of Lee Cattermole, feels it could have been a different outcome had the Black Cats led by half time ahead.

"I think the whole stadium saw it including the ref, but he's made his mind up that it was ball to arm, that's his interpretation," O'Shea said.

"It's very frustrating, because you see it so clearly. The ref does see it - he was looking because there's no one near the player.

"He chests it then it hits his own arm, you can easily avoid that, but it didn't go our way and you have to move on. We had chances to win the game, but we didn't take them.

"It would have given us a big boost going into half time and we could have set up differently taking a lead into the second half, but, as I said, the ref has probably had better games than he had today, but obviously we can do much better as well."

It was a huge blow for the Black Cats to concede five minutes after they had got the breakthrough, but it was especially disappointing from a defensive point of view given the fact they had not conceded twice in a game since before Christmas.

O'Shea, who has played a key part in the five clean sheets the Wearsiders have kept since Martin O'Neill was appointed in December, admits a loss of concentration cost his side on Saturday.

He said: "It was possibly a loss of concentration on our part, but we had blocked a great shot and it just fell to one of their players, sometimes there's not a lot you can do.

"The disappointing thing was letting Arsenal equalise five minutes after we'd gone ahead.

"If we could see those next ten or 15 minutes out, I felt we would have held on for the win, but saying that we had a few chances towards the end to sneak it as well.

"It was a great effort from the lads, but obviously we're disappointed with how we've lost the game in the first minute of injury time.

"It's a bitter pill to take because we've done well in the game.

"Arsenal might have had a bit of possession, but they were never really hurting us or causing us problems.

"It's a disappointing how the goals that they got were un-Arsenal like, we blocked his shot and it's just fell to one of their players, he won't hit a cleaner shot in his life and it's gone into the bottom corner.

"It's frustrating, but we'll look forward to the FA Cup next week.

"Arsenal will obviously have the Champions League to occupy their minds while we rest up.

"We'll look forward to an FA Cup clash against a top team, but one we'll be looking forward to and knowing we can win it."