Sunderland manager Roy rages at the man in the middle after Villa draw

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After 18 months of relative calm, Keane's mask slipped and his No.2 Tony Loughlan had to usher him away after what was described by witnesses as a vicious verbal attack.

• More Premier League news

Keane's rage was still burning strongly when he spoke about Bennett's controversial decision to rule out Danny Collins' 93rd-minute header for a foul on England goalkeeper Scott Carson.

The Sunderland manager could be facing an FA disrepute charge.

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Controversy: Collins (right) nets the ruled out 'goal'

"Sending the referee down a division would be unfair for the league he's going into," said Keane.

"Or do you mean give him a break? You say take him out of the Premier League but it would be unfair to the Conference, their players and supporters if he went down there.

"We were under the cosh but I always felt we would nick it in the end and we did. We did nick it. This is not a road I wanted to go down.

"Listen, I had a feeling anyway. I saw him at the hotel last night and just thought "nah". I haven't criticised him. Have I? I've just said that he got a massive call wrong. I feel cheated."

Collins had risen to meet Grant Leadbitter's corner, along with team-mates Kenwyne Jones and Danny Higginbotham. There was minimal contact when Collins headed home.

Keane and Loughlan eventually got in to see Bennett for a private chat.

Before that, the seething manager said: "He was ready to give it as the ball came over. There's such a fine margin at the end of the season. Massive.

"We're on 14 points at the moment, another two and it would have been 16. Massive. You have to wait half an hour after the game to speak to him and whoever invented that rule is obviously very, very clever. There's no logic to it. Nobody else was appealing."

Higginbotham did score with a fine header from a Ross Wallace corner after 10 minutes. With just over a quarter of an hour remaining, Shaun Maloney punished sloppy Sunderland play with a free-kick Martin O'Neill rightly described as exquisite.

"We'll end up talking about the referee for the next few days ," said Keane. "But I think this ref will enjoy that."

FABIO'S FILE

NIGEL REO-COKER (Aston Villa, age 23) REO-COKER has all the attributes to dominate central midfield and drove his side on with tenacity and invention. Difficult position to emerge in, though.