GUS POYET accepted responsibility for Wes Brown’s remarkable red card at Manchester United, with the Sunderland head coach poised to make a substitution moments before the contentious penalty incident.

Brown was giving his marching orders despite John O’Shea having brought Radamel Falcao down in the area, a decision which referee Roger East defended on Saturday evening.

But Poyet believes the penalty decision – from which Wayne Rooney scored and added a second late on to give United a 2-0 win – would not have happened if he had brought Danny Graham on as planned.

Graham was stripped and ready to come on when Falcao was hauled down in the area, and Poyet said: “We are human beings. I made a decision. I didn't change early enough to stop that penalty happening and that was my mistake. They [referees] need to accept as well they make mistakes and not hiding because they are hiding a little bit.”

Speaking about Brown’s dismissal, which Sunderland confirmed they will be lodging an appeal against, Poyet added: “I think they're confused. Wes is confused because the referee said he sent him off because he made contact with Falcao but he didn't. That's the problem. He sent him off for something that didn't happen. It was nothing to do with John.

“It's tough, it's tough. The problem we have lately in football, and I'm not just talking about us, is after the game we're talking about a bad decision, not a game where we did well but we didn't pass the ball well enough in the second half so we were defending all the time. When you defend a lot in the end you're going to make a mistake and concede a goal.

“Something always happens.

“If he gives the penalty, which apparently was (correct, according to Roger East) – I just saw one quick moment, and John is sent off, then perhaps we would not be talking about anything apart from the game afterwards.”

The referee took the unusual step of issuing a statement on Saturday evening to explain his decision.

The statement from the PGMOL, the referees' body, read: "From his position Roger East, the match referee, believed he saw contact from John O'Shea and Wes Brown on Radamel Falcao.

"As he thought Brown made a foul on Falcao while he was in the act of shooting, he dismissed Brown.

"After the incident the match referee consulted with his team of officials but none were better placed to offer guidance."

Sunderland were defensively excellent in the opening 45 minutes at Old Trafford, but lost their way in the second half which was compounded by the sending-off on 65 minutes.

Poyet was disappointed that his side could not replicate their first-half performance.

“We played okay for 45 minutes, not very good for 20, then before I was able to make a change ,the penalty changed the game,” said the Uruguayan.

“We needed someone to go in behind, we didn't have enough power going forward and Danny Graham was going to give us that.

“We were ready, the change had already been decided (upon) when the penalty happened and that changed the game. One minute before and one minute after was the difference between us conceding a goal.

“For 15 minutes, I was delighted – everything we talked about in the week knowing how they were playing was working well. Then of course you need to defend. I thought half-time came at the right time for us. We needed to make sure we improved a few things in the second half but we didn't and that's why we needed to make a change. I left it too late.”

Sunderland’s appeal will be fast-tracked and they will hear today whether it was successful, but with the focus falling on their trip to Hull tomorrow night, Poyet accepts that the following fixtures are all about results.

“Tuesday and two weeks’ time againstAston Villa it's not about style, it's not about passing, it's about winning, and it's time,” said Poyet. There's a moment when you need to take your chances and win football games somehow and for us that time is right now.

“We're going to play the best team to win the game. Something always happens against Hull. I hope we're not talking about another refereeing decision on Tuesday night.”