Premier League: Roberto Martinez says Sunderland's Connor Wickham should have been sent off

Everton boss Roberto Martinez says Sunderland’s Connor Wickham should have been sent off for bringing down Seamus Coleman in the box.

The forward gave away a penalty, which allowed Leighton Baines to earn Everton a point from a 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light, but referee Lee Mason opted not to book Wickham, despite his challenge from behind preventing Coleman from shooting.

It was a clear-cut goal-scoring opportunity and it should have been a red card.

“I thought the penalty is a bit of a surprising incident. It was a clear-cut goal-scoring opportunity and it should have been a red card,” said Martinez.

“That’s a bit of a frustration because at that moment we had all the momentum and it would have been a period where maybe we could have taken advantage.”

Everton had fallen behind to a Sebastian Larsson free-kick on 67 minutes before striking back nine minutes later and Martinez was happy to see his side battle back.

However, the Everton boss was disappointed his team did not cause Sunderland major problems until after they had gone 1-0 down.

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Reaction

“I’m satisfied with the reaction,” he said.

“In any game, when you go down, especially away from home, it becomes really, really difficult.

“But as a team we didn’t look as penetrating as we normally are. We should have taken a little bit more of our attacking play with more intent and tried to score that goal earlier.

“We defended really well but you’re always exposed to concede from dead ball situations as we have done.

“But the reaction was magnificent. It would have been easy for Sunderland to get bodies behind the ball and try to defend.”