Samba saw red in first-half stoppage time at Ewood Park after bringing down Danny Welbeck just as the Black Cats forward was about to burst into the area. Having consulted his assistant, referee Lee Probert gave the Rovers captain his marching orders before awarding a free-kick and Allardyce accepted the right decision had been made. "I have no complaints on the rule or the law," Allardyce said. "Chris got himself in a muddle and pulled Welbeck back. It was the correct decision, outside the box and he got the red card that I have got no complaints about. "Chris is an immense talent and his ability on the floor is normally very, very good. On this occasion he got himself mixed up. "Instead of just clearing it with his left foot, he decided he wanted to do a little swivel round and get it back to the 'keeper but Welbeck nipped in and caught him out. "He will be a big miss but Jonesy (Phil Jones) went back there into his natural position and did an outstanding job in the second half. "Him and Gael (Givet) and the whole team did very well getting a well-earned point tonight." In the build-up to the match Allardyce had challenged Fulham's Danny Murphy to publicly apologise for pointing the finger at Rovers in his comments about dangerous tackling and managers sending their teams out too pumped up. In that context, Samba's red card came at a bad time but Allardyce was keen to stress that it had not come about due to reckless play. "He (Samba) is very disappointed, he is very down about the situation and he feels he has let himself down and the lads, but it is one of those things and it happens in a season," said Allardyce, who revealed that substitute Benjani Mwaruwari had to go off again after suffering suspected concussion. "At some stage you are going to get a player sent off. I think it is our first one this season and it's not really for a dirty or nasty challenge, just a bit of a pull-back because he knew the player was through." Sunderland boss Steve Bruce admitted his side cannot keep relying on Darren Bent. The England frontman, who started the game having recovered from the groin injury which forced him out of the national side's Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro, missed a great chance to put the Wearsiders in front when one-on-one with Paul Robinson. Bent has netted five of Sunderland's seven goals in the Premier League this term and Bruce feels his star striker needs more support. "We can't keep relying on Benty to score us a goal," Bruce said. "We've got to come up with some goals from someone else. We should be taking some of the chances we've created."
