Many supporters in the Bob Lord Stand were disgusted with the behaviour of the Stoke boss, he was constantly warned by the fourth official, and it looks as though he was so busy trying to wind up the assistant referee and some of the Burnley players that he took absolutely no notice of what was actually happening on the pitch.
“A point was the least we deserved,” said Pulis after the game. “I felt we were the better side right from the start, even when it was eleven against eleven. We cut through them like a knife through butter at times but didn’t mae the most of our chances.
“It would have been easy for our lads to let their heads go down and lose their shape and disclipline after so many things went against them early on, but they didn’t and that is credit to them.”
Incredibly he had a go at the referee and said, “I don’t agree with the decision for the penalty. Robbie Blake jumped with Clint Hill and fell over and the officials bought it. In those circumstances you just hope the referee and his assistants understand the game and what goes on but they didn’t.”
Although his side scored just once in the second half and didn’t create too many clear cut chances despite their one man advantage, Pulis saw it differently than anyone else.
“We really slaughtered Burnley in the second half, we must have had 80% of the possession, but we never really had the breaks or the luck,” and then outrageously added, “I think most of that stayed with
“Their keeper made some good saves and we had four forwards on at the end but the ball just wouldn’t run for us in the box.”
Clarets boss Steve Cotterill was considerably more accurate with his views. “I thought we started brightly and deserved to be in front,” he said. “The two goals we deserved, it was a good finish from Ian Moore and Robbie Blake kept his cool for the penalty.
“I thought that the chance Richard Chaplow had at 2-0 could have killed them off, but I thought Richard was terrific today and covered every blade of grass.”
As for the dismissal of Michael Duff he added, “I didn’t think it was a sending off, at worst it was ball to hand, but we’ll have to see the video of it before we decided to make an appeal, so we’ll look at that now and it might have to be done first thing on Monday.”
He thought the result was a fair one, “To be fair to the boys, Stoke are a very good side so far this season and it is always going to be tough especially with ten men after just 43 minutes.
“We defended very well, especially when we were down to ten men, and coped with everything Stoke could throw at us late on.”
Finally commenting on the debut of young full back Richard Duffy he said, “I thought he did well and proved why he had a big money move from League Two to the Premiership. He looked a little nervous at first, but he’s a good player.”