Sunderland striker Darren Bent endured a horror return to White Hart Lane as he missed a penalty in their 2-0 defeat to Tottenham.

Bent's miss was a crucial moment in the game as Sunderland had gained momentum after falling behind to Robbie Keane's early strike.

Tom Huddlestone wrapped up the 2-0 win with a thunderbolt off the crossbar but the talking point surrounded Bent's penalty.

"For me the goalkeeper's denied him a goalscoring opportunity so I can't go along with the referee's explanation to me which was he was going away from goal," Sunderland boss Steve Bruce said. "That's a load of nonsense.

"I think he's taken the ball around him. If you look at where the ball goes, it doesn't even go out of play, so Benty for me gets on the end of it, and yes there might be somebody on the line, but I would fancy him to score when he goes round the keeper in that situation.

"Now it might have been a different result, the reserve goalkeeper might have come on and saved it but we would have been playing against 10 men with half an hour to go so that would have given us a huge advantage."

Bruce added: "I have to question if that had been the Stadium of Light we might have got a different decision."

Bent endured a frustrating return to Spurs after leaving in acrimonious circumstances last summer.

Replays also suggested he may have gone down too easily for the penalty, but Bruce added: "It's a stone-cold penalty. If somebody's rushing out at you, the one thing you are going to try to do is get out of the road."