Sunderland boss Steve Bruce claims referee Kevin Friend may have been influenced by the White Hart Lane crowd when he kept Heurelho Gomes on the pitch during the Premier League defeat to Tottenham.

Friend awarded a penalty when Gomes brought down Darren Bent early in the second half but only produced a yellow card despite the Spurs goalkeeper being the last man, with the Brazil international saving the spot-kick after his reprieve.

Bent's miss was a crucial moment in the game as Sunderland had gained momentum after falling behind to Robbie Keane's early strike.

Tom Huddlestone wrapped up the 2-0 win with a thunderbolt off the crossbar but the talking point surrounded Bent's penalty.

"For me the goalkeeper's denied him a goalscoring opportunity so I can't go along with the referee's explanation to me which was he was going away from goal," Bruce said. "That's a load of nonsense.

"I think he's taken the ball around him. If you look at where the ball goes, it doesn't even go out of play, so Benty for me gets on the end of it, and yes there might be somebody on the line, but I would fancy him to score when he goes round the keeper in that situation.

"Now it might have been a different result, the reserve goalkeeper might have come on and saved it but we would have been playing against 10 men with half an hour to go so that would have given us a huge advantage."

Bruce added: "I have to question if that had been the Stadium of Light we might have got a different decision."

Bent endured a frustrating return to Spurs after leaving in acrimonious circumstances last summer.

Replays also suggested he may have gone down too easily for the penalty, but Bruce added: "It's a stone-cold penalty. If somebody's rushing out at you, the one thing you are going to try to do is get out of the road."

Victory for Spurs came after back-to-back league defeats, with the three points raising hopes of them maintaining their place in the top four.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp said: "Man City will be right there, Aston Villa will be right there and looking to push the top four. I think ourselves, the top four are very, very strong obviously and I think ourselves Villa and City will all be having a go.

"There's no reason you can't do it. It's not impossible to do. No-one has said you can't finish in the top four. You have days against Stoke when you murder them and days when you win 2-0."

Spurs were jeered off by their own supporters at half-time, despite leading, and Redknapp admitted his side were not at their best and had to rely on the heroics of Gomes, who pulled off a string of saves.

"We were very fortunate, the keeper's had a fantastic day but that's how it goes," Redknapp added. "We got three points, you can play well and get nothing. We've got (Aaron) Lennon and (Luka) Modric to come back and when they come back we'll play differently again."