Stoke City manager Paul Lambert has admitted that the red card shown to Charlie Adam in the first half of his side's Premier League clash with Everton this afternoon was a "massive blow".
Adam was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Wayne Rooney after only 30 minutes of the match at the bet365 Stadium, and Stoke went on to slump to a 2-1 defeat which leaves them three points from safety.
Lambert acknowledged that the incident had a game-changing impact, but conceded that referee Martin Atkinson was right to produce the red card.
"I couldn't really see it with the weather at the beginning but I saw it on the monitor and I can understand why Martin's given the red card," Lambert told reporters at his post-match press conference.
"If you go in with your studs in the modern-day game and you mistime a challenge, you put yourself in that position to be red carded. The way the weather was and the conditions, the pitch becomes more slippy, that can have an effect on it. (But) I can understand why he gave the red card.
"We started well, we looked really good. It was a massive blow. Charlie's as disappointed as anyone but you can't change it."
Stoke are now winless in their last seven Premier League games.
Barney Corkhill
