Bruce: Sunderland free kick controversy in the past

Steve Bruce believes Sunderland have moved on from last week's free-kick controversy ahead of Saturday's visit of Manchester United.

The Blacks Cats host Bruce's former club looking to bounce back from last week's controversial draw at Liverpool.

The home side took the lead after Sunderland were awarded a free-kick, and defender Michael Turner played the ball back to keeper Simon Mignolet.

Fernando Torres thought the free-kick had been taken and latched onto the pass before squaring for Dirk Kuyt to slot home an early opener.

The visitors were incensed as they felt Turner was merely knocking the ball back for Mignolet to restart play.

Sunderland responded brilliantly with a Darren Bent double putting them in front before Steven Gerrard secured a 2-2 draw.

"I think we've just recovered from it," he told Sky Sports.

"But the one thing I'm fed up about is talking about referees. It seems to have followed us for a while now unfortunately.

"A lot of people last week didn't realise one thing. The referee stopped Michael taking a quick free-kick. He played it back so the free-kick wasn't in the right position.

"But we've been through it, we've recovered from it. It was harsh and we felt hard done by but we still managed to play very well on the day and I hope we can repeat that on Saturday.

"We need to be at our best - like we were last week and like we were against Arsenal. I hope we've still got something in the locker to go there and play well because we'll have to go against a very good Man United team."

 
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