West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has expressed his belief that a 'horrible' penalty decision robbed his side of three deserved points from their trip to Sunderland.
Jordi Gomez gave the Black Cats a 22nd-minute lead when he converted from the spot, after James Tomkins had apparently felled Adam Johnson in the box.
Stewart Downing quickly replied to earn the Hammers a 1-1 draw, but an ambitious Allardyce was hugely frustrated with the judgement of the assistant referee, who was responsible for the making the penalty call.
"I wanted three points. I think the performances and chances created deserve that but we respect a point away from home in the Premier League," he told BBC Sport. "The overall performance from the players was excellent and you have to be satisfied when you come back from a goal down.
"It was not a penalty and it is as simple as that. It was given by the assistant referee and he got it horribly wrong.
"We created enough chances in the first 20 or so minutes to win two games. In the end, we respect the point but on the performance overall I think we deserved all three."
The point keeps West Ham, who are now unbeaten in four games, in the top four of the Premier League table, but was not enough to see them regain third from Manchester United.
Joe Fish
