Peterborough United boss slams 'appalling, unbelievably bad decision' in Sunderland defeat

A tight game was settled with just under ten minutes to play when Jack Taylor was adjudged to have fouled the lively Denver Hume down in the box.

An irate Ferguson said it was a ‘disgraceful’ call by referee Scott Oldham.

“It was a very tight game as expected, but the referee changed it by making a disgraceful decision,” Ferguson said.

“It was an unbelievably bad decision. It was a foul on Jack. The players are fuming and so am I. It was an appalling decision."

Sunderland boss Phil Parkinson disagreed with Ferguson’s verdict, saying: “It was a penalty. I don't think when Darren watches it back he can complain.”

Parkinson also said that Sunderland should have been awarded a penalty early in the second half, when Aiden O’Brien was brought down in the box after a shot from midfielder Josh Scowen.

Peterborough United boss Ferguson also conceded that his side’s inability to turn a promising start into a goal had been a key factor in Sunderland’s win.

Front pair Jonson Clarke-Harris and Siriki Dembele caused the Black Cats problems in a lively opening 20 minutes, with the former missing a glorious opportunity to score when Lee Burge pushed an effort from Dembele into his path.

The Black Cats responded with a period of dominance of their own at the beginning of the second half, but Leadbitter’s penalty came not long after Sammie Szmodics had rattled the crossbar with a free kick from distance.

Fergusion said that inability to convert early on proved to be key.

“It’s a disappointing result as I was happy with our performance level, but we had to score in the opening third of the game when we gave them all sorts of problems,” he said.

“Jonson Clarke-Harris should have scored early on and if he does they would have had to come at us and we would have had space to exploit.

“When you’re on top in these games you have to score and we didn’t. The front two looked very good at the start of the match.

“They didn’t cause us many problems though, They had a lot of corners, but we dealt with them well. We started the second half slowly, but our shape was good and we came through it. If anything we looked the stronger side when they scored.

“I can only remember one save Christy Pym had to make. They didn’t open us up.”

The defeat leaves Peterborough in 19th position, with three points from their games thus far.

Sunderland sit in fourth with seven points from their three games.

Ipswich Town sit top of the table, having made it made it nine points from three Sky Bet League One games with a 2-0 victory over Rochdale.

Second-half goals from Teddy Bishop and Gwion Edwards secured a result which leaves Dale 23rd.

Grant McCann’s Hull also retained their 100 per cent league record with a 2-0 win over Northampton secured by first-half strikes from Keane Lewis-Potter and George Honeyman.

Honeyman was also handed the captain’s armband for the game.