Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris has dropped a major hint about Trai Hume's red card appeal. The Irish defender was sent off just seven minutes into the 2-1 defeatagainst Bristol City on Friday.
Hume was red-carded for clipping Nahki Wells from behind as he broke clear. The decision looked ridiculously harsh, given Wells appeared to be running away from goal, while contact appeared minimal.
Sunderland still took a 31st-minute lead through a wonder goal from Eliezer Mayenda, who capped a lung-bursting run from deep his own half with a clinical left-footed finish. Centre-back Rob Dickie equalised with a sweet right-footed shot any striker would have taken pride in on 55 minutes and wing-back Ross McCrorie sent home fans into ecstasy by drilling home a left-footed winner from a narrow angle with 14 minutes left.
Sunderland defended heroically, but they now look like being joined in the play-offs by City, who are finishing the season in impressive form. Le Bris has long insisted that Sunderland's focus must now be on the play-offs, and that is one reason why he looks unlikely to appeal Hume's red card.
If they don't, or if any appeal is unsuccessful, Hume will be forced to sit out of Monday's visit of Blackburn. He would, however, only have to serve a one-match ban so he'd back for the final two games of the regular season before the play-offs. Given he has started 41 of Sunderland's 42 Championship games, a rest may not be the worst thing for the full-back.
Le Bris said: “We felt the sending off was a bit harsh, but I don’t know whether we will appeal. It certainly changed the dynamic of the game to play 85 minutes with 10 men after we had started well.
"I don't know if we'll appeal. For us, we just want to manage the different games properly and manage the squad to have the best energy at the end of the season. The play-offs is most important so I don't know if it will be necessary."
“We scored a fantastic goal and from then on we defended well. But in that situation when you have to defend so many crosses it only takes one mistake or one good shot from the opposition to raise their energy levels and make things more difficult.
“Eliezer Mayenda has shown before that he can score that type of goal. He has improved a lot as a player over the season and is very important to us as he can keep the ball under pressure as well as dribble with it.
“This game could prove a very positive experience for us. We could face the same challenge in the play-offs and even with 10 men we have only been beaten 2-1. If that happened in the play-offs we would still have a home match to come.
“I believe we can take heart from the performance and I feel really confident about what lies ahead of us.”
