Sunderland have already been on the wrong end of at least one decidedly dubious refereeing decision this season - Andy Welsh's wrongful dismissal at Liverpool last month. Referee Barry Knight later reviewed the incident, and Welsh's red card was swiftly rescinded by the FA to allow him to start against Manchester City three days later. Though that did nothing to change the fact Sunderland had still been very much still in the game before the former Stockport winger was given his marching orders at Anfield. That is an injustice you might imagine would have left Mick McCarthy harbouring something of a grudge against referees in general. But the Black Cats boss has given his full backing to the men in black - or yellow or green. McCarthy maintains he has every sympathy with officials who he believes are being asked to do a virtually impossible job. And he argues the glut of red cards which have so far been such a feature of this season's Premiership was almost inevitable, after referees and their assistants were given new directives to work within this summer. "I feel sorry for the referees in some ways, because they get these directives at the start of every season, and they have to make sure they adhere to the letter of the law," McCarthy said. "We've seen it with the tackle from behind, the professional foul, diving - there seems to be something they want to crack down on every year at the start of the season. "So, of course, as the season kicks off what we get is glut of these decisions. "We now have the situation with tackles which supposedly endanger an opponent. "Even if you tackle and get the ball, but still hit the opponent as well, that's a booking - or if it looks too bad, it could even be a sending off." McCarthy revealed he and his Premiership peers were warned about the impact of the new directives before a ball was kicked in anger this season. And he says the managers collectively expressed their concerns about the impact they could have on football in this country. "We, the Premiership managers, were concerned about it, and said so at the meeting we had before this season started," McCarthy told the Sunday Sun. "We were talking to Keith Hackett about it, and chatting amongst ourselves about what the outcome would be - and it was a real worry because the game is played at such a pace now that it is very hard for referees to get things right all the time. "We had the referee Chris Foy in to one of our training sessions at Sunderland in the summer to make sure the players knew exactly what was going on - and that was very helpful." But the Black Cats boss believes the fact refs are increasingly prepared to review dubious decisions has gone a long way toward improving relations between officials and managers. "In our case, with Andy Welsh getting sent off at Anfield, it wasn't the ref who made the decision, it was his assistant," McCarthy said. "In those situations, the ref has to take his assistant's word and send the player off - he has no choice really. "But what is good is refs have been prepared to review such things, to look at them again. "We might have had a chance of getting something from the game at Anfield, but certainly weren't going to do anything with 10 men. "But I think managers are encouraged by the way such decisions have been looked at and rescinded - they've seen sense, and that's encouraging. "But I feel for the refs working to these directives, as it is a hard enough job with the pace the game is played at." | 
