What Sunderland fans are saying about Craig Pawson, Ross Stewart and Blackburn Rovers defeat

The Black Cats had a strong appeal for a penalty when Jack Clarke tangled with defender Ryan Hedges but nothing was given.

Rovers then immediately broke forward and opened the scoring after an excellent strike from Ben Brereton Diaz on the edge of the box.

The hosts doubled their lead when Scott Wharton converted Hedges’ free-kick with a glancing header.

Here’s how some fans reacted to the result, with many questioning the performance of referee Craig Pawson:

@GeorgeMJHorsley: Blackburn got lucky with a few decisions. That being said, we could play this game till Christmas and still not score. Bad officiating costing us short term. Bad recruitment costing us long term.

@Redtelephone84: Definitely didn’t deserve to lose tonight. Combination of poor refereeing decisions and a lack of strikers was the difference.

@Philip_RJ89: Just not our night. I’m sick to death of refereeing decisions being at the heart of post-match discussions, but you can’t overlook them on this occasion. On the other hand, we have to start shooting more.

@SR7Liam: One of those games tonight. Penalty none decision changes the game and ultimately we deserved nothing from that point.

@GaryKerr_78: No team in this league looks amazing. Frustrating this striker situation as I genuinely feel that we could be top of this league if they were fit . Happy with mid table at the start of the season but play-offs realistic.

@andrew_wright97: Can’t complain about the players or effort, played well tonight. Got to question how many more points we’d have in the last 9 games if Stewart or another striker played

@stehewy: SAFC needed 2 things to win tonight, 1. VAR. 2. Ross Stewart

@AlexSAFC92: Let's not lose sight of where we came from. Newly promoted. Holding our own in every game, against some big sides. Some real quality in the squad. Kids look electric at times. First game we’ve lost by more than one goal (and both shouldn’t have stood)

@Jessica41400379: Regardless of what people say Sunderland were robbed a stone wall penalty and was offside for the second. Them lads give there everything in the second half