Phil Parkinson claims Sunderland should have had two penalties after losing to Portsmouth
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The Blues delivered a stylish 2-0 victory to leapfrog the Black Cats and regain a place in the League One play-offs.
Christian Burgess headed home the opening goal on his 200th appearance in the 25th minute before James Bolton doubled the advantage seven minutes into the second period.
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Hide AdSunderland scarcely tested Alex Bass in the home goal, with Luke O’Nien’s long-range effort which struck the post the only chance of note.
But Parkinson thought his troops had claims for a pair of spot-kicks before the interval.
He thought Chris Maguire was fouled when coming together with Ronan Curtis before Charlie Wyke was clipped by a defender which allowed Bass to gather a loose ball on the stroke of half-time.
Parkinson said: ‘I thought in the first half we played some great stuff and were the better side but it’s about the defining moments in games.
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Hide Ad‘For the first goal, I didn’t think it was a free-kick. Luke O’Nien had been fouled prior to that, but Portsmouth had that bit more edge in both boxes.
‘Their centre-halves are very dominant, we know that, and heading the ball out of your box is very important and we came up short twice.
‘If you look at the first half, we should have had two penalties and it is hugely frustrating. We needed the officials to be stronger but unfortunately those big calls didn’t go our way,
‘If you look at the (Wyke) incident, he's running through, and the defender has just ran across him and clipped him, and made him collide with the goalkeeper.’
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Hide AdPompey dominated the second period and their victory could have been more emphatic.
Sunderland defender Joel Lynch was stretchered off late after colliding with keeper Jon McLaughlin, with Parkinson pinning blame on Ellis Harrison, meaning they finished with 10 men.
Parkinson knew there was little chance of the visitors getting a result after that.
He added: ‘In the second half they started with intensity, they put the ball in behind us and played in a very direct kind of way and got that second goal.
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Hide Ad‘When they got that second goal, I felt it gave them a huge lift and we just couldn’t get out and get the ball down and play like we had in the first half.
‘And obviously it was compounded in the last 10 minutes by going down to 10 men with Lynchy’s injury.’
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