Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones has been fined by the club for his sending-off against West Ham. The 25-year-old Trinidad and Tobago international was shown a straight red card for raising his hands to West Ham defender Herita Ilunga during last Saturday’s 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light.

Manager Steve Bruce was furious with Ilunga’s reaction to the incident, but insisted Jones, who will start a three-match ban with Saturday’s trip to Tottenham, should have known better.

He said: “That’s the disappointing thing of the sending-off, not just dealing with West Ham last week, we have got to go into the next three games without Kenwyne. That’s why he has been punished. The club has punished him.

“We have got a standard disciplinary procedure which comes into effect. It’s quite simple, it’s there in black and white for them.

“Kieran Richardson was exactly the same two weeks ago. If you get sent off for two yellow cards or mistimed tackles, that happens, or you are the last man and you may get handballed or something, that happens.

“But something silly — we have all done it, we have all been there, the heat of the moment and you react.

“He will be a miss because the strike-force for me has been the reason why we are going the way we are at the moment, because we are a threat at the top end of the pitch. Being without Kenwyne, we will have to adapt.”

Bruce accused Ilunga of “play-acting” after the final whistle and backed Sam Allardyce’s fears that the game is in danger of turning into one for “pansies”.

Hammers assistant boss Steve Clarke this week reacted angrily to his comments, and while Bruce admitted he maybe should have held his tongue, he remained unrepentant.

He said: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but anybody who witnessed it...

“I said at the time, if I remember rightly, that Kenwyne deserved to be sent off because we know the rules — you are not allowed to raise your hands and he was sent off for pushing somebody over.

“The way Ilunga reacted...I am not going to change. I will let other people have a look at the video evidence, have a look for themselves and see what they think.

“If anybody disagrees with me — I take Steve’s point, I shouldn’t be talking about his player, but I think he knows as well his player rather over-reacted.”