Allardyce: Nothing sinister in Samba challenge
Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce shrugged off Christopher Samba’s red card against Sunderland as “one of those things” following last night’s goalless draw at Ewood Park.
Samba was sent off in first-half stoppage time after bringing down Danny Welbeck just as the Black Cats forward was about to burst into the area.
In the build-up to the match Allardyce had challenged Fulham’s Danny Murphy to publicly apologise for pointing the finger at Rovers in his comments about dangerous tackling and managers sending their teams out too pumped up.
Given that context, Samba’s dismissal came at an unfortunate time, but Allardyce was keen to play down the incident.
“Chris is very disappointed, he is very down about the situation and he feels he has let himself down and the lads, but it is one of those things and it happens in a season,” said Allardyce.
“At some stage you are going to have a player sent off. It is our first one this season and it’s not really for a dirty or nasty challenge, just a bit of a pull-back because he knew the player was through.”
Although stressing there had been nothing malicious about Samba’s actions, Allardyce accepted referee Lee Probert made the right call in giving the Rovers captain his marching orders and awarding a free-kick.
“I have no complaints on the rule or the law,” Allardyce said.
“Chris got himself in a muddle and pulled Welbeck back. It was the correct decision, outside the box and he got the red card that I have got no complaints about.
“Chris is an immense talent and his ability on the floor is normally very, very good. On this occasion he got himself mixed up.
“Instead of just clearing it with his left foot, he decided he wanted to do a little swivel round and get it back to the ’keeper but Welbeck nipped in and caught him out.”
Sunderland failed to make the man advantage count after the break and their manager Steve Bruce admitted the Wearsiders cannot keep relying on Darren Bent, who started the game having recovered from the groin injury which forced him out of England’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro.
Bent has netted five of Sunderland’s seven goals in the Barclays Premier League this term but squandered a great first-half chance when one-on-one with Paul Robinson and Bruce feels his star striker needs more support.
“We can’t keep relying on Benty to score us a goal,” Bruce said.
“We’ve got to come up with some goals from someone else. We should be taking some of the chances we’ve created.”
