by Michael Baggaley

STOKE City manager Tony Pulis defended goal hero Ricardo Fuller after Hull boss Phil Brown accused the striker of diving to win a match-saving penalty at the Britannia Stadium this afternoon.

Stoke were trailing to Marlon King’s first-half injury-time strike when Fuller went down in the 72nd-minute under pressure from Tigers keeper Boaz Myhill.

Fuller scored from the spot to secure a 1-1 draw, much to the fury of Brown, who said the striker conned the referee.

Brown, who also hinted he was unhappy with Stoke’s style of play, said: “In my opinion, we have been robbed by a poor decision. We came here to play some good football and didn’t play as much.

“I apologise for that. But I make no apologies for the way they play. It wasn’t a spectacle by any stretch of the imagination.

“I felt it wasn’t a penalty. I thought it was a very theatrical dive.” 

However, Pulis said the six-goal top scorer had been caught by Myhill.

He said: “I have seen it on the television and he caught his back leg. From one angle it doesn’t look as though he is anywhere near him. But from the other angles – from the other side and from where the referee was – he actually caught his back leg.

“I spoke to a referees’ official on Monday and he was saying how well our players had done in respect of not falling around and not trying to get people booked. I think they are an honest group of lads.

“We don’t do things like that and we don’t encourage people to do it.”

Pulis also disagreed with Brown over a booking for Hull substitute Dean Windass.

The veteran striker was yellow-carded for warming up in front of Rory Delap just as the Stoke player was trying to run in for a long throw.

Brown said he was astonished referee Keith Stroud chose to book Windass, but didn’t yellow card a Stoke player for a foul on Hull’s Geovanni.

Brown said: “Windass was booked for stretching and Geovanni has been assaulted and left off the field of play. Their guy didn’t receive a yellow card. Phenomenal.”

Pulis said he had no complaints about the officials and agreed with the decision to book Windass.

He added: “If he wants to be doing things like that, it’s up to him. I thought the referee dealt with it in the right and proper way.”