Sunderland winger Jack Clarke dismisses cheat accusations
Jack Clarke has denied he dived in an attempt to win a late penalty for Sunderland in their Championship defeat at Swansea.
The winger was Sunderland’s goalscorer in the 2-1 defeat, but he angered the home fans when he was adjudged to have tried to con the referee late on.
Clarke was booked for the incident and confronted by aggrieved Swansea players, but he insists there was contact and he had every right to go down.
“To be honest, I think if he gives the penalty, it's a soft penalty, but I haven't dived,” Clarke said.
“I felt a little bit of contact after I've got round him so I feel like personally I'd have had no need to dive.
“I could have put a ball across but it was just a frustrating game throughout.”
The goal in South Wales was Clarke’s fourth of the season with the former Leeds man really starting to get his career back on track after a disappointing spell at Tottenham.
It has been tough for him at times, though, with opposition managers often singling him out to be doubled-marked.
However, Clarke says that is ultimately a good thing.
“If teams are willing to sacrifice attacking threats to play more defenders to stop me you've just got to take it as a compliment,” he continued.
“We're a good team in this league, and we're starting to get respected by other teams and we've just got to take this in our stride.
“We need look at things in terms of how we're going to attack how we're going to create chances when teams are playing differently against us.”
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