A strike from James McClean on the hour mark was enough to hand Sunderland all three points at Britannia Stadium, but Stoke were hampered by Huth's dismissal just before half-time.

Sunderland's David Meyler went down after a challenge from Huth, for which the Stoke man was shown a straight red card, and Pulis was incensed after watching replays of the incident.

"I've watched it twice now and Robert's committed himself and then pulled out of the challenge and doesn’t touch the kid (Meyler) at all," he said.

"What's disappointing for me, and it's got more ingrained in the game, is the reaction of the player and I think it's something Gordon Taylor and the PFA should really get to grips with because the game's difficult enough for the referees, with the pace and tempo that it's played."

"You get situations when players are actually falling around and rolling around when they're not even being touched, or not really hurt. We don't want to be like other countries and take challenges out of the game, we want to be competitive and as fair as we possibly can."

"I think players are going down now with the intention to get a player booked, or even sent off when they've not really been hurt. For me that's trying to cheat another professional, they're part of the same union and it's a disease that we should quickly stamp out."

The Welshman all but confirmed Stoke will appeal the decision.

Pulis' opposite number Martin O'Neill was feeling much more positive after the game, reserving particular praise for goalscorer McClean.

"Obviously (we're) delighted to have won the game," he said.

"The conditions, certainly in the last 20 minutes, borderline in terms of the game keeping going, although I never thought for one minute the referee was going to stop it."

"He's (McLean) performing brilliantly for us and he's had a great couple of months and I thought he took it (his goal) brilliantly."

"I didn't know him at all until I arrived at the football club, so to see him blossom it's been very pleasing for everyone."

The Northern Irishman's view on the sending off contrasted to that of Pulis, and he believed the referee made the right call.

"I haven't seen it back but my initial view of it I thought as though it was going to be a red card, and given the new directives now it looked that way, I'm sure Tony will disagree," O'Neill said.

"The players around thought it was a red card."