Cats wait on Wickham diagnosis

Black Cats boss Steve Bruce once again came away from Old Trafford empty-handed, and the Premier League defeat was made all the more frustrating by a refereeing controversy and a suspected serious injury to one of his players. Bruce, who played for Manchester United for nine years, has never beaten his former boss Sir Alex Ferguson in 17 attempts, and he had to swallow another defeat today after Sunderland defender Wes Brown, another former United man, headed an own goal in first half stoppage time. Worse than the result, though, was the suspected knee ligament damage suffered by teenage striker Wickham in the opening moments of the game. The 18-year-old appeared to slip and twist his leg awkwardly, leaving Bruce to contemplate the loss of another player to the same injury in the last year following Fraizer Campbell (twice), Titus Bramble, Michael Turner, Craig Gordon and David Meyler. "That's the big disappointment of the afternoon for us because we think it's a serious knee injury, and that's now seven we've had in 12 months," said the Sunderland boss. "We hope it's not what we think it is but the signs don't look good. It's unbelievable, I've never known anything like it." The main talking point of the match was a decision by referee Lee Mason in the 68th minute when he appeared to award Sunderland a penalty only to change his mind. Mason acted on the advice of assistant Jake Collin, who immediately flagged when he thought Phil Jones had handled a Sebastian Larsson cross, but, with Larsson waiting to take the spot-kick, Mason decided the offender had been Ji Dong-won of Sunderland. Bruce accepted the outcome had been the correct one but was unhappy with the way it had been reached and accused Mason of using guesswork. "Ultimately they've got the right decision, I don't think we can argue with that, but it took me four times looking on the video monitor to see who handled it, and it was still difficult," said the Black Cats boss. "When the linesman gave it, and when you watch the referee's reaction, he walks up, he's got information in his ear it's handball, it's a penalty, he goes and points to the spot. "Once he's done that then he's been surrounded by the Manchester United players, and he's changed his decision. "I'm not sure he knew straight away whether it was handball. They got the decision right, but the way they got there has left a bad taste. "I think anybody in the ground would be lying if they said they knew it was a deliberate handball by a specific player. "I said to the referee in the future he has to learn from it. In my opinion, he was guessing, and he guessed right. But he shouldn't be guessing." The clash marked the 25th anniversary of Ferguson's appointment as manager of United, with Bruce and both sets of players forming a guard of honour as the Scot walked onto the pitch. Chief executive David Gill then announced the north stand at Old Trafford was being renamed in Ferguson's honour, to the complete surprise of the man himself. Bruce said of his managerial nemesis: "He welcomed me in with a great glass of wine and said, 'unlucky again'. That's eight times. I'll be his age before I get a result here. "But I have to say the tribute, naming the stand after him, I've never known anything at Manchester United kept a secret. It's quite remarkable and fitting, too. "I said to him maybe he's taken his finger off the pulse because he didn't know what was going on!"