TONY MOWBRAY will not be instructing his Sunderland players to watch their language in the wake of Dan Neil's controversial dismissal in the Wear-Tees derby defeat to Middlesbrough that preceded the international break.

Tomorrow's trip to Stoke City will be Sunderland’s first outing since their derby defeat at the Stadium of Light, a game that was heavily influenced by referee Jarred Gillett’s controversial decision to issue Neil with a second yellow card for swearing.

Mowbray was deeply critical of the dismissal at the time, and has now revealed that Sunderland received an official apology from the referees’ assessor in the wake of the game.

“Proc (first-team coach, Michael Proctor) is the one who writes the report, who sends the video clips, gives the opinion, and they (the assessors) reply,” explained Mowbray. “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.”

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Mowbray regards Neil’s sending off as a complete one-off, and does not feel the need to speak to his players about the way they interact with officials.

“This is a young team, and I don’t think they are overly verbally aggressive to any referee,” he 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."