Bruce on the Liverpool Defeat

Wigan Athletic boss Steve Bruce spoke candidly about Saturday`s defeat at the hands of Liverpool, he was buzzing about the performance of Latics striker Amr Zaki, but still frustrated about the performance of the referee Alan Wiley, Bruce said:

'Zaki was absolutely scary - he put in a wonderful performance.

'When you produce a display like that, the last thing you want to happen is to finish on the losing side. There were frustrated players in our dressing room afterwards.'

'To come to Liverpool and get a result, you need the referee to have a respect.

'I keep hearing about this word 'respect' but certainly there was none shown in that performance.

'Valencia didn't encroach on the ball at the free-kick until it was kicked.

'He was going sideways and backwards while Alonso was pretending to take it. When Alonso did take it, Valencia broke and took the ball, that was a big decision which was the referee got wrong.

'We can't appeal the sending-off because it was for two bookings, and that's another joke of a rule.

'The lad has had a bad week. He was sent-off playing for Ecuador last weekend too.

'That decision changed the game totally.

'Yes, we could have done better with 10 minutes to go, but we had a lot of tired bodies out there after the international break.

'We took Liverpool on and it wasn't a fluke we twice got into the lead.

'The second goal from Zaki was a great one.

'The way we went about things was excellent for 70 minutes, and I even thought we were comfortable with 10 minutes to go.

'But we needed to keep 11 men on the pitch.'

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