No excuses from Rafa

Last updated : 19 October 2009 By Al Campbell
Darren Bent's winner for Sunderland was a fluke with his shot hitting a beach ball that a fan had thrown on the pitch and then deflecting past Pepe Reina. However, Benitez admitted his side didn't deserve to take anything from the game anyway.

"It was a special situation but we didn't play well. The goal changed the game but we didn't play well, made some mistakes and gave the ball away. After this they played well on the counter-attack. They had some chances and when we had our chances we didn't take them.

"These things can happen in a lot of games. It's a bad situation for us that the [inflatable] ball was in the middle and was influential but again I will say we didn't play well - that's the main thing for me.

"We had some players who we knew could be a little bit tired, and then conceding after four minutes it was even more difficult. We have to do better if we want to win these kind of games."