Sam Allardyce Admits He Took El-Hadji Diouf Off To Save Him From A Red Card In Stoke Defeat

Sam Allardyce admitted he substituted El-Hadji Diouf to prevent the player from being sent off against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium.

The Potters won the game, courtesy of a strike by Jonathan Walters, but speaking after the gamee the Rovers manager admitted he had been forced into making a chance for fear of losing Diouf to a red card.

Allardyce said: “I didn't want Howard Webb to send him off again. I thought I better take him off for his own safety. He's obviously getting frustrated so we have to make sure we don't give Howard Webb the opportunity to send him off and change it [the game].”

The Blackburn manager also admitted he was frustrated at the result due to the time and nature of the goal Stoke scored.

“It is in many ways [frustrating]. I think that the biggest frustrating thing was the goal we conceded today," he added.

"It's an easy defensive position to defend. We don't often see our central defenders messing up like that to let a nothing situation develop into a goal scoringsituation which they took and it ended up being the winning goal.

“Bog standard basic defending has let us down, unfortunately.”