A freak Darren Bent shot deflected off a beach ball, which was thrown onto the pitch from a visiting fan, to hand Liverpool their fourth defeat of the season.

Former FIFA referee Graham Poll told BBC Sport that the goal shouldn't have stood as the object thrown interfered with the action.

However, Bruce believes that Sunderland were worthy winners.

"I thought it was a deflection off a player and I have just seen it, but if anyone knew the rule that it should have been a drop ball then you are a real saddo," he was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.

"I thought we deserved the win, I hope that [the goal] isn't the headline - in the second half we had three one-on-ones.

"I was thinking that we needed to get a second, but I thought we thoroughly deserved it and one of the reasons I came here was for days like this."

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez refused to blame the controversial goal for his side's loss which casts doubts over their ability to win the league title for the first time since 1990.

"It was a special situation, but we didn't play well and so I don't want to talk about that - we didn't play well and we made some mistakes, we gave the ball away and we couldn't take our chances," the Spanish tactician said.