Michael O’Neill proud of Stoke’s attitude after key decisions go against them

Stoke boss Michael O’Neill praised his team’s attitude to gain a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield after claiming all of the game’s key decisions went against the visitors.

Josh Koroma opened the scoring for the Terriers in the first half but was lucky to still be on the pitch having caught Taylor Harwood-Bellis with an ugly knee-high challenge.

Before the break, Tyrese Campbell was then tripped in the box by Tom Lees only for vociferous away shouts for a penalty to be also rejected by referee Gavin Ward.

But substitute Jacob Brown, who O’Neill also felt was the victim of another red-card challenge, went on to secure a share of the spoils in the 78th minute.

On his team’s character and the performance of Ward, O’Neill said: “The key decisions in the game all went against us and I can’t explain why that is.

“It was clearly a red card for Koroma. I’ve seen it back and it was a straight red card tackle on Taylor.

“I don’t think it was malicious – it was a forward’s tackle but, nonetheless, it was a red card and, then, Koroma went on to score. It was also a clear penalty on Tyrese.

“He was on the blind side of the defender who didn’t see him coming and Tyrese got to the ball first but, again, the referee didn’t see that.

“I thought there should have also been another red card for the second-half tackle on Jacob, but the players’ attitude to being hard done by was terrific.

“We deserved at least a point if not more. The opposition started extremely well and they are a good team who press hard, but we were clearly the better team in the second half and probably from half-an-hour onwards.”

Huddersfield manager Carlos Corberan confessed that his team tired both physically and mentally after the interval.

“We spent a lot of mental and