Bent uses Twitter to make Sunderland racism claim

Darren Bent has claimed his mother was racially abused by a Sunderland fan during his side's 1-0 defeat at Wigan.

The striker posted the claim on his Twitter feed shortly after the match, which was settled by Hugo Rodallega's 76th-minute goal.

Bent's original post read: "So we get beaten by Wigan and to make matters worse my mum gets racially abused by a Sunderland fan. I won't stand for that.''

In later posts replying to other users of the site, Bent labelled the abuse "an absolute disgrace'' and warned: "The offender needs to hope I don't find out his name or who he is."

The matter has been reported to the police, with a club spokeswoman confirming to BBC Sport: "Sunderland are liaising with Northumbria Police to fully investigate this matter.

"Behaviour of this kind is totally unacceptable to our football club.''

Bent was a club-record signing from Tottenham in the summer - after another Twitter post criticising Spurs chairman Daniel Levy over the handling of the move - and has since scored nine goals and earned an England recall.