Keane's bad feeling

Sunderland 1 Aston Villa 1:Some managers place their faith in science, making decisions centred on the latest ProZone stats, but others are much more instinctive.

This school prefers to pick players on the basis of body language rather than the previous week's pass completion rate and, instead of treating information contained in computer print-outs as gospel, acts on "hunches".

Roy Keane belongs firmly to the latter group, so much so that, when he bumped into Steve Bennett, Saturday's referee, at Sunderland's team hotel on Friday night, he was engulfed by a sense of foreboding.

Revealing that he "had a gut feeling" Bennett would disappoint, Keane explained that "just looking at him, just looking at his face", provoked "a hunch, a bad feeling".

This premonition proved startlingly accurate, with the referee crowning an appalling performance by, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, disallowing Danny Collins's headed goal which would have provided Sunderland with a precious win.

Martin O'Neill felt that Bennett had ruled Collins's effort out for a foul on Scott Carson as he jumped to meet Grant Leadbitter's corner, but he seemed in a minority of one.

"I thought a player's arm came across," said Villa's manager.

Keane, though, hinted that Bennett, an official he has "history" with, simply did not want Sunderland to win.

"My concern is that the referee had already decided to blow (the final whistle) before the corner had come in," he said.

"As the ball was travelling you could see he was ready to blow, but this referee will enjoy that we're talking about him."

Considering Bennett had whistled for half-time just as everybody was in position for Sunderland to take another corner, there was a certain symmetry to this suggestion, which may nevertheless see Keane having to explain himself to the Football Association.

Bennett, too, will surely be called to account, and it would be no surprise if his overall display here sees him quietly disappearing from the Premier League list for a week or two.

His defence will presumably be weakened by the referee assessor's report which can hardly overlook a litany of bizarre decisions against both sides.

Keane said he was "as angry as I've been as a manager", but this rage was more of the quietly seething rather than ranting variety. If Keane has changed - radically - since the day, six years ago, when Bennett sent him off for aiming a punch at Newcastle's Alan Shearer, his old self-destructive tendencies live on in his team.

While Sunderland lack their manager's formerly hot-tempered, wild streak, they frequently lose control when it comes to retaining the ball and their constant cheap forfeiture of possession here could easily have prefaced a Villa victory.

Another of Keane's "hunches" had persuaded him not to include a defender on the substitutes' bench, but such instinct arguably betrayed him as, having assumed an early lead courtesy of Danny Higginbotham's header from Ross Wallace's corner, Sunderland struggled to protect it.

With Ashley Young - on a mission to "impress Fabio Capello" - causing havoc down Villa's left, O'Neill's pacey, improving team repeatedly blitzed Sunderland's area with a barrage of crosses.

Possibly benefiting from the intensive defensive drilling they have been receiving from Ricky Sbragia, Keane's new first team coach, Higginbotham and Paul McShane somehow held firm until possession was once again needlessly squandered and McShane's foul on Shaun Maloney saw the substitute curl a fabulous, 20-yard free-kick beyond the motionless Darren Ward.

Maloney briefly played alongside Keane in Celtic's midfield and afterwards recalled the experience in gushingly awe-struck terms. Invited to return the compliment, Sunderland's manager joked: "I carried him."

How his team could do with an experienced midfield enforcer to "carry" them clear of the relegation zone now. Keane must trust his transfer window "hunches" do not let him down.